Fall to Pieces
by plays-with-stars
Summary: Jackson always gets what he wants. After the flight he has come back to claim what's his. Chapter 23 has been edited and changed.
1. Back to normal

A/N: So I just want to make something clear before you start reading. This all started from a comment my friend made to me while watching Red Eye. Since then I've wanted to see someone write a fanfiction where Jackson forces himself on Lisa. I am in no way supporting the idea of rape. It's just a story. Blame my friend for mentioning the idea while we were watching the movie. If you don't want to read anymore, fine. If you still do please review when your finished.

It had been six months since the dreaded red eye flight to Miami. Lisa was finally starting to get her life back together. She threw herself into work even more if that was even possible. Lisa enjoyed being around the people at the hotel better than being home all by herself.

The remodeling of suite 4080 didn't take as long as Lisa had expected it to. It would soon be ready for people to stay in it. Not that anybody who had been watching the news would want to stay in a suite 4080. At least she would have an extra room for those times they were completely full and somebody's reservation somehow managed to get lost.

After the crisis at the hotel Cynthia and her had become close friends. Cynthia was one of the few friends Lisa had other than her dad. Lisa had refused to open herself up to any more man.

The last time she let her guard down and let herself become interested in a guy he ended up being a psychopath intend on killing her. She didn't need a boyfriend. She was kept busy enough with the hotel and her dad worrying about her all the time.

Following the whole ordeal of the red eye flight Jackson Rippner was taken to the hospital to treat his many injuries inflicted by Lisa. Despite all the bad media Jackson managed to use his charm and win over every one of his nurses. He spent months in the hospital recovering and receiving physical therapy.

The next week Jackson was scheduled to be released from the hospital into police custody. From there he was to await trial for the assassination attempt on Charles Keefe. This is how it would have gone if Jackson hadn't seemed to have vanish into thin air. The two guards stationed outside his room never saw him leave and Jackson left nothing behind as a clue to what had happened to him.

Jackson wasn't going to give himself up to the police that easy. Jackson knew he had to get out of the hospital and it had to be soon. Luckily his friendships and charm with the nurses came in handy when he needed there help to leave the hospital. After all he still had some unfinished business with a certain hotel manager.

Back at the Lux Atlantic it had been an extremely busy and stressful day for Lisa. Cynthia had called in sick which left Lisa running the whole hotel by herself. Everything that could go wrong did. Room reservations were losts, the plumbing was malfunctioning and the phone was ringing non-stop. By the end of her shift all Lisa wanted to do was go back to her house and sleep forever.

By the time Lisa had reached her house it had grown dark outside. She hurried from her car to the front door holding her keys so she could quickly open the door. Being outside always made her uncomfortable but ever since the red eye flight her fear of the dark had intensified.

Being inside her house didn't make her feel much better. At least once inside her house she had the locks on her front door to keep her safe from the outside world.

When she stepped into her dark and quiet house the only knowledge that comforted her other than the locks on her door was the fact that Jackson Rippner was soon to be in police custody. He would go to jail and she would finally be able to move on with her life completely.

Unfortunately for Lisa she hadn't heard the news of Jackson's disappearing act from the hospital.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, please review. Reviewing only takes a couple seconds to do and I enjoy reading the feedback.


	2. Jackson

A/N: Short chapter I know but it felt like a good place to end it. Thank you to everyone who did review. Reviews are addicting so pleasetake a few minutes to review and feed my addiction. I love getting those little e-mail alerts.

Lisa double checked to make sure the all the doors were locked. She then went to take a much needed shower and then head straight to bed. After her shower Lisa laid in her pajamas watching the T.V. that sat on top of her dresser.

Lisa fell asleep while some random late night infomercial played on the TV.

She woke up a start a couple of hours later thinking she had heard something. Ready to react she reached out for anything that could be used as a weapon. She relaxed when she realized that she had forgotten to turn the TV off when she fell asleep.

Lisa went back to sleep convinced that the TV was the noise that had woken her up. If Lisa hadn't been half asleep and a listened a little harder she might have been able to hear the noise that more likely had been the cause of her waking up.

Jackson had become very experienced with picking locks in his line of work. He easily let himself into Lisa's house after he was convinced that she should be asleep. He stood in the living room just thinking for a few minutes.

His mind wandered to the scar he discovered on Lisa's chest while they were in the airport bathroom. His feelings towards it confused him. On one hand he was furious at the guy who had dared mark Lisa's perfect skin and do that to her. On the other hand though he was disappointed that he could never be Lisa's first.

Even before Lisa meet him he wanted nothing more than to be with her. The minute he started watching her he couldn't seem to control his feelings of lust towards her.

She of course would never want to be with him after what he had done to her and put her family through. If things had been different maybe Lisa would have fallen in love with him. Whether Lisa loved him or not did not stop Jackson from wanting her.

Jackson always got what he wanted.


	3. Night Terrors

A/N: Thank you to the few people who took time to review. I really appreciate the feedback. I'm on spring break now so it might be a while until I update again. If I get a lot of reviews though, I could be motivated to find time to update sooner.

Jackson wasn't afraid to use force or threats to get what he wanted. He thought he made this pretty clear on the plane. Everything would have worked out as planned if Lisa hadn't gone and ruined everything. This time he promised things would be different. Everything would work out exactly according to his plan.

Jackson made his way back to Lisa's bedroom. He was quite familiar with the layout of her house by now. The door to her bedroom was open and he could see Lisa peacefully sleeping.

He debated on whether he should wake her up right away. He rather enjoyed just watching her sleep. Jackson never had to make a decision though. After standing there just watching her sleep for a couple minutes Lisa started to stir.

Lisa had an odd feeling someone was in her bedroom watching her sleep. She was sure she would have heard them come in though. Lisa debated on opening her eyes and proving herself right.

She was worried that by opening her eyes she would be confirming her fear.

Lisa finally got the courage to slowly open her eyes. After what she saw she wished she had kept her eyes shut. She told herself that she must be hallucinating from her lack of sleep.

There was only one person that Lisa knew that had eyes so blue that they seemed to glow in the darkness of her bedroom. That one person was supposed to on there way to jail. That one person Lisa never wanted to see again. No matter how much Lisa didn't want to believe it and tried to deny it her worst fear was coming true. Jackson Rippner was standing in bedroom.

She tried to scream but nothing came out of her mouth. Her voice caught in her throat and caused her not to be able to speak. Noticing she was finally awake Jackson walked into the bedroom leaving the place he was standing by the door. He was careful though to walk in a way that he would still be able to block her exit should she try to be stupid and run for the door.

"You're sssupposed to be in jail." Lisa said quietly. Her voice obviously shaking and causing her to stutter.

"I don't think your happy to see me Leese." Jackson said acting rather smug. "I for one missed you. I waited for you to come visit me in the hospital. I was rather hurt that you never came." Jackson stated sarcastically. He knew Lisa would have never come visited him. She was probably hoping he would never recovered.

Lisa wanted to tell Jackson to go to hell but she was too frightened to say anything back in reply. Lisa pulled her blankets up closer to her face in an effort to shield her body that now felt naked in the sheer nightgrown she was wearing.

Jackson was disappointed that Lisa wasn't talking to him. He expected more of a conversation when he arrived at her house.

Jackson took a couple steps closer to her bed. "What's the matter Leese, cat got your tongue?"

What Lisa really wanted was for him to leave and never come back. Lisa finally got the courage to say something.

"I would like you to leave my house right now." She said trying to sound as firm in her command as she could manage considering the circumstances.

Jackson started to smirk at her comment. "I don't think that's an option Leese" he said as he opened his jacket to reveal a gun hidden in his waistband of his pants.

Lisa subconsciously tensed up seeing the hidden gun and became scared enough to hinder her speech again. She knew he was a lousy shot but not even he could miss at this distance. "Why issn't that an option?" " What do you want?" Lisa managed to finally get out stumbling over a few of the words.

Jackson could tell he was frightening Lisa by just standing in her bedroom. "Well Leese to answer your question. I can't leave yet because I haven't gotten what I came for."

Jackson's answer made Lisa even more uncomfortable and she tugged on her blankets until they wouldn't go up any farther.

"Which would be?" Lisa asked hesitantly. She was scared to hear his answer because she already had an idea of what he meant.

"You're a smart girl Leese. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. I want you, Leese. Ever since I meet you I've wanted no one but you." He replied with a devilish grin as he started getting closer to her bed.

Lisa started pushing herself towards the head of the bed in futile attempt to put some distance between Jackson and her.

Jackson silently laughed at her actions. They wouldn't do any good. He was going to get exactly what he came to her house for.


	4. Fall to Pieces

Jackson finally made his way to over to Lisa's bed. Lisa was now was trying to make herself as small as possible at the head of the bed.

He sat down at the foot at of the bed and reached out to stroke Lisa's face and push the hair out of her eyes. She flinched at his touch on her skin.

"You are so beautiful, Leese, especially when you're upset like this," Jackson said not sounding a bit sympathetic to the anguish Lisa felt.

If it hadn't been for the gun she had seen earlier Lisa would have fought him. She easily could have kicked him and then run out of the bedroom. She was able to outrun him the last time and she was sure she could do it again. She knew that wasn't an option this time unless she wanted to risk being shot so instead she sat silently on her bed hoping he would grow bored and leave her in peace.

Suddenly feeling overly confident by the silence Lisa decided to say everything she had been thinking but was too scared to actually say.

"Look, Jack," she said emphasizing the shortened version of his name. "I'm not your own personal play thing that you can just have fun with and then leave." Lisa realized being this bold with Jackson Rippner probably wasn't the smartest thing considering the position she was in and started feeling terrified again.

Without even thinking Jackson delivered a quick slap to Lisa's face and retrieved the gun that was still being hidden in the waistband of his pants. He casually held it at his side so it was in plain view for Lisa to see.

"You know what I think, Leese? I think I'm the one holding the gun so therefore I get to say what happens. Got it?" he replied angrily and grabbed her chin so she was forced to look him in the eye. "Answer me, Leese. Are you going to behave this time?"

Lisa slowly nodded her head indicating that she understood Jackson. Her beautiful green eyes were now pointed at the floor too scared to look at him directly.

"Good. I'm glad we got things straight," he replied and returned the gun to the waistband of his pants.

Jackson pulled down on the blankets that Lisa was still using in a desperate attempt to cover herself. As soon as the blankets fell on the floor Lisa automatically crossed her arms across her chest in a vain attempt to stay covered.

This did not make Jackson happy. He was tired of playing these games with her. He reached over and gently pulled her arms down to her side. He could now see the scar on her chest through the thin material of her nightgown. He reached over and traced it with it with his index finger. Lisa fought the urge to slap his hand away.

She had finally realized what Jackson had wanted when he came to her house tonight. She didn't think she could go through it again. It would completely break her for good. Lisa allowed her body to go numb when she felt his lips kissing her neck.

She told herself that it would all be over soon. She just had to concentrate on something else. She tried to think of a happier time in her life. The happy memories she was trying so hard to concentrate on soon took over and she soon felt disconnected from her body.

Lisa was already off in her own world by the time Jackson had taken his shirt off. She no longer cared about fighting back. He was going to get what he wanted whether she tried to fight him off or not. At this realization a single tear rolled down her small face. She would not let him see her cry. That was the one thing that she still did have control over.

Lisa's thoughts were still on the happy vacation when Jackson's angry and shrill voice snapped her out of it. He was yelling at her for something which was most likely not playing along with his sick fantasy.

"Take it off," Jackson demanded fingering her nightgown with his forefingers. Sure, he could easily take it off for her but where would the fun be in that.

"No," Lisa said quietly smacking his hands away and bringing her arms back to her chest.

No was not a word that Jackson heard often nor did he enjoy it either. Growing impatient he retrieved the gun still tucked tightly in his waistband, aiming just above Lisa's head, he fired it.

The sudden noise caused Lisa to jump and her body started shaking. It was too bad she didn't live close enough to people for them to hear. She was sure that Jackson had already thought about that.

"Now, Leese, I'm going to give you one more chance to listen. Take… it… off..."

"Jackson, please." Lisa first had refused to allow herself to beg him for anything but she was growing more and more desperate by the minute. "Don't do this. I'll give you anything else."

"I guess I'll just have to do it for you then." Without even setting the gun down, he started to pull her nightgown over her hand with his free hand. Lisa struggled against him trying to pull the thin fabric back down. During the struggle against him Lisa ended up kicking Jackson hard in the stomach.

Forgetting Lisa's nightgown, Jackson quickly pushed Lisa down against her bed holding her in place with his legs while straddling her. The gun that had been in his hand hanging loosely against his side Lisa could now feel it resting against the side of her head. Any feeling she had about fighting him off had suddenly been extinguished "You may not believe me, Leese, but make me angry enough and I will kill you. Is that what you want?"

"No."

"Then you better start behaving." With the new understanding Jackson shifted his weight to allow Lisa to get up from the bed. Standing beside the bed Lisa watched as he shed his jeans and discarded them into a pile on her floor. Jackson had noticed how Lisa had turned away from him as he was undressing. "Leese, I'm waiting."

Lisa knew he wasn't going to leave and she would really rather him not touch her more than necessary. She reluctantly pulled off her nightgown.

With the nightgown off, Lisa felt very open and scared. It was bad enough the first time but to have to endure it a second time was too much.

Now in only his boxers Jackson crawled on top of Lisa and begin to gently kiss her neck before moving onto to her lips. Lisa couldn't help her body's reaction to wiggle and fight. Her arms uselessly pushed against his strong chest until she finally gave up.

It seemed like forever that Lisa laid there on her bed completely helpless. She had promised herself that this would never happen again and now she couldn't do anything to stop it. Finally Jackson got up and Lisa reached for her blankets hoping he was finally done.

"Not so fast," Jackson chastised Lisa dropping the blankets she had grabbed onto the floor. Lisa turned away as Jackson removed his last piece of clothing.

"Your turn, Leese," Jackson smirked showing Lisa that he was enjoying the sexual act as much as the torment she was internally going through.

Lisa bit at her lip and shook her head "no" unable to find her voice to do anything else. Allowing him to kiss her was one thing and she could manage to get through that but what he wanted was more than she could handle.

Since Lisa continued to refuse him, which was starting to very much annoy him, Jackson reached over to help take her undergarments off.

Lisa swatted at his groping hands unable to deal with him being so close and his hands all over her again.

He didn't imagine this would be this much work. He should have known that Lisa wouldn't just lay back and give in to him.

Jackson grabbed at her chin so she was facing him.

"Aww, Leese, I thought we had an understanding." Jackson moved to pick his gun back up that he had momentarily lain down as he finished undressing. "I guess your dad will have to find something else to fill all of his time with if you're not around anymore." Jackson really didn't want to have to follow through and kill Lisa. She would be no good to him dead and Jackson really didn't like giving up things he enjoyed.

"Don't…" Lisa choked out as tears threatened to spill over as much she wished them not to. She didn't want to give Jackson what he wanted but she also wasn't ready to die. Considering his job was killing people and he was holding a gun she was sure that he wouldn't hesitate following through on his threat. She would just be another person whose life he had ruined. "I'll do it. I'll give what you want."

Lisa stood feeling Jackson's eyes on her the whole time. He was probably waiting for her to run or do something equally stupid. With shaking fingers she pushed down her pink lacy underwear until it fell to her ankles.

"Was that really that hard?" Jackson asked sarcasm seeping from every word. "Now be a good girl and lay back down."

Lisa lay back down and forced herself to continue focusing on the old memory from earlier so she couldn't feel Jackson's body against her or inside of her. Lisa wished he would be quick but she didn't know how long exactly she had been laying there trying to focus on her happy memories only to be interrupted by his voice.

It took a while for Lisa to completely come out of the trance she had put herself in when she realized that Jackson was talking to her and waiting for a response. As soon as she realized that Jackson was finished, she fumbled with the sheets from the floor to quickly cover up her violated body. Re-dressing would take much longer she decided. Lisa could do that after he finally left.

"And, Leese, don't bother going to the police about this. They won't find any record of me."

His smugness made Lisa want to jump off the bed and cause him the same amount of pain he had caused her. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that he was still holding a gun and maybe he was finally ready to leave.

"You got what you want now," Lisa said unable to make eye contact with Jackson and hoped he would step out of her life forever. "So there's really no reason for you to come back here."

Jackson laughed at the thought that Lisa could get rid of him so easily. "I'll be the one deciding when I'm done with you. Right now I think I rather enjoy having you nearby, Leese."

This new information sent shivers through her body that she had finally gotten to stop shaking. "What else could you possibly want Jackson?" Lisa spat forgetting the gun he was holding and any self-preservation she had left.

"I did tell you that I might have to steal you," Jackson said with a smirk enjoying Lisa's body noticeably tense up.

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Maybe." Jackson shrugged. "At least not tonight. Where would the fun be in that?"

"I want you out of my life, Jackson."

"I can't do that, Leese." Jackson turned to leave the bedroom and Lisa finally allowed herself to relax. "I'll be seeing you."

Once Lisa heard his footsteps reach the front door and she heard the door click shut she finally gathered her clothes that were strewn all over the floor. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to go on after this.


	5. Road to Recovery

A/N A big thank you to all the people who took time to leave awesome reviews. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Feel free to yell at me though if you think this chapter seems too rushed. I hope it doesn't. Remember to review they make me make my day so much better.

After that night he seemed to disappear completely. According to the police no records were left that even showed that a Jackson Rippner ever existed. Lisa knew she should have realized that due to Jackson's job he would be good at disappearing. She wished the police could have helped her more. She knew he would probably never be caught but as long as she never had to see Jackson again she was satisfied.

Lisa called off work the next day. She told Cynthia she had caught the flu and might not be able to come to work for a few days. Cynthia assured her not to worry that she could handle everything. Though Cynthia didn't think Lisa sounded sick. She knew there must something else that was bothering Lisa but didn't bother asking. She knew Lisa would just tell her she was fine. That was always her answer to that question whenever she was asked if she was okay.

Lisa spent her days off work secluded in the house. She didn't have any energy and always felt like sleeping. Her sleep though was always plagued with nightmares of Jackson and the events of that night. When she was up she would usually watch some random infomercial that was on TV at the time. Lisa took to wearing baggy clothes to hid the rapid weight loss that was happening from her not eating much.

Her dad had been calling it seemed non-stopped but she didn't feel like talking to him right now. He would ask what was wrong and she would have to spend energy convincing him otherwise. She knew she would have to talk to him eventually because he was going to start to worry that she wasn't answering her phone. Worrying is what her dad did the best.

On the third day of Lisa not returning his phone calls Joe Reisert decided to pay his daughter a visit. Lisa still clad in her pajamas which were now flannel as opposed to the sheer nightgowns she used to wear decided she had no choice but to answer the door. Her dad was very worried about the appearance of the daughter who stood in front of him.

"Lisa, you look horrible. Are you sure you're okay? You know you can tell me anything." She felt bad hiding this from him because she could tell he was very concerned. She just couldn't bring herself to tell her dad that she let it happen again.

"Dad, I'm fine. I told you I just don't feel good." Lisa answered. She was starting to get annoyed that everyone was so worried about her. She was going to be fine. She just needed some time alone.

Lisa steered her dad towards the front door. "I'll call you later Dad, alright?"

"You can me call me anytime you want Leese. I'll be here to listen."

Lisa cringed at the shorten version of her name. She knew her dad didn't realized that it bothered her so much now.

Lisa knew she needed to talk to somebody about what happened that night with Jackson but she just wasn't ready to revisit that memory quite yet.

Lisa returned to work the next week. Her cheery attitude at work hid the fact that there maybe something still bothering her deep under the surface.

Cynthia had stopped asking her if she was alright. Lisa always gave her the same answer anyways.

Lisa had finally made an appointment with a therapist for the coming week. She felt like maybe she was finally able to talk about it with someone. A stranger might actually be better to talk to than someone she knew. She just had to get through this week.

Through her therapy session she was learning how to deal with events of the past.

Things were finally starting to look up for Lisa. She was slowly learning to trust people again. Her therapist was helping her realizing that all guys weren't bad people. Despite popular belief and her past she really didn't want to be alone the rest of her life.

One night that she and Cynthia went out she had meet a really nice guy named Landon. He was very nice and it didn't hurt that he was quite handsome as well.

Lisa could tell he was perfect gentleman from the first time she meant him. Her instincts told her he would never pressure her to do anything she didn't want to do and that made her quite happy. He wouldn't even kiss her unless he was sure she wouldn't mind. At the beginning of the relationship she was quite jumpy whenever he would touch her even in the slightest.

She hadn't explained her past to him yet but she did plan on telling him eventually. The only explanation she gave him for now was that she had some bad experiences with guys in the past. He didn't press the issue ever. He never hesitated to take every opportunity that he could to tell her over and over again that he would never hurt her like the other guys because he loved her very much.

Things were finally going better in Lisa's life. Her future didn't seem so dark anymore.


	6. Introductions

A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Also anyone that thinks any of this seems rushed hopefully it won't seem like that after you've read more. I do have a plan for this story. I hope you all enjoy this chapter because I personally am having a bad day. I've decided I hate my one professor but that's my own problem now isn't it. Remember to review it will help make up for my bad day.

Lisa and Landon had been dating now for two and a half months. It had been the best two months ever for Lisa. She was glad she finally found someone that cared for her the way he did. Ever since meeting Landon, Lisa starting cutting down on her hours she spent at work. No longer using work as a way to keep busy. The memory of Jackson would always be in her mind but it was slowly starting to fade. She spent all of her free time with Landon.

Lisa had decided that it was probably time for Landon and her dad to meet. Lisa was hesitant to introduce him to her dad him being so protective of his little girl and everything. Dinner she had decided was the perfect excuse to introduce both of them. Lisa invited Landon and her dad over to her house the next night for dinner. Her dad immediately fell in love with him. Joe was ecstatic that his daughter had finally found someone who made her so happy. Lisa had been through so much she deserved to be happy and have someone who deeply cared about her.

Halfway through dinner, though, Lisa had to excuse herself because she was feeling rather sick all of a sudden. Lisa went to her bedroom to lie down after she had assured her dad and Landon that she was going to be fine. She hated to ruin the evening for everyone but she was sure she'd feel better after she got to lay down for a little bit.

Lisa's confidence that she was fine didn't stop either man from worrying anymore than usual though. Joe and Landon did the dishes together while Lisa slept peacefully down the hall.

Joe finally left after much convincing from Landon. He was going to spend the night incase Lisa needed him. He assured Joe that he would take good care of Lisa and would call him if anything changed. Landon peeked in on Lisa before heading to the guest bedroom a few doors down.

Lisa may have finally agreed to let Landon spend the night occasionally but she still insisted that Landon sleep in the guest bedroom. Lying in the same bed with a guy even if it was Landon still made her uncomfortable. Landon always respected Lisa's wishes.

When Landon woke up the next morning Lisa was still sleeping soundly. He couldn't help but think about how lovely she looked just laying there. It was too early to make breakfast so he decided that maybe he would just sit with Lisa even if she was still asleep. He wasn't trying to lay in bed with her so he didn't see any problem with just sitting near her bed.

He reached out to fell her forehead to make sure she hadn't developed any kind of fever during the night. Lisa moved away from his touch and her face tensed up. Landon's touch had triggered memories of that night and Lisa couldn't help but feel like she was back there. Landon watched as she starting thrashing about in her sleep. Lisa was saying something that Landon was trying to hear but was too quiet for him to make out. Lisa movements had moved her so she was now close to the edge of the bed and in danger of falling. Landon could sense something was wrong and tried to wake Lisa up from her nightmare before she fell off of her bed.

Lisa had felt someone touching her and her instincts took over and she smacked Landon as hard as she possible could. Landon stumbled backwards stunned by what just happened. The impact Lisa had made with Landon face had been enough to wake her up from her nightmare. When she finally awoke she saw Landon holding the right side of his cheek.

"Wow, Leese you sure can hit hard." Landon said trying to lighten the mood when he saw Lisa had awoken. He was still trying to figure out why his girlfriend has just punched him. "Were you having a nightmare, Lisa? When I touched your forehead to check for a fever your body suddenly tensed up"

Millions of thoughts were zooming through Lisa's head when she realized what had just happened. She had just hit her boyfriend all because he was trying to take care of her. Lisa realized she was going to have to give Landon some kind of reason for her sudden violent outburst. She wasn't ready to tell him the truth yet. She hadn't even told her dad yet. She would just have to think of a believable excuse to tell him.

Landon just stood there. He wasn't going to push Lisa for a reason if she didn't want to give him one. He was confident she would tell him the reason for her actions when she was ready.


	7. Concern

A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I enjoy the feedback so remember to review this chapter when your done reading. They really domotivate me to update faster. Also big thanks to Sleeping Nadine for helping me catch any errors. Anything she missed is my fault. Enjoy.

Lisa got up to examine his cheek. "I'm so sorry, Landon. I didn't mean to. I didn't even realize what I was doing I must have been having a nightmare or something" Lisa said casually trying to brush it off as nothing. She knew the real reason she had hit Landon. She had thought he was Jackson. Lisa left Landon still standing there while she left the bedroom to go get some ice for his face.

Landon followed Lisa to the kitchen and realized how she still looked rather pale in the brightly lit kitchen. He was sure she still wasn't feeling good and tried to coax her to go back to bed while he made breakfast for the two of them. Lisa agreed to lie down on the couch in the living room so she could still be near Landon.

Landon finished making breakfast for the both of them and they ate in the living room so Lisa wouldn't have to move. She had just finished eating not even twenty minutes when she had to get up and run to the bathroom. Lisa emptied the contents of the breakfast Landon had so thoughtfully made for her into the toilet. After throwing up she didn't feel much better.

She lacked the energy to make it back to the living room and debated on just staying in the bathroom since she was still nauseous anyway. Landon had heard Lisa throwing up in the bathroom and was starting to get concerned that she seemed to be getting worse instead of better.

Landon debated on calling Lisa's dad or the doctor first. He decided to call the doctor first in case it was nothing. He didn't want to unnecessarily worry Joe. He was hoping it was just a bad case of the flu. He wouldn't know for sure though until he talked to Lisa's doctor.

Landon made his way back to the bathroom where the door was now open and Lisa was leaning against the wall.

Landon entered the bathroom and kneeled in front of Lisa to talk to her. "Leese, I'm going to call the doctor. Is that okay with you? I'm worried that you just seem to be getting sicker instead of better."

Lisa weakly nodded to Landon indicating that it was okay to call. Landon decided to sit beside Lisa while he called incase he needed to ask her anything.

Landon called the number Lisa had posted by her phone and waited for the secretary on the other end to answer.

"Hello, Doctor Johnson's office. How can I help you?" the secretary asked in cheery voice.

"Hi, I was calling because I'm worried about my girlfriend. She wasn't feeling well last night and today she's been throwing up." the concern in his voice was evident to the secretary.

"Sir, does you girlfriend have any other symptoms other than nausea and throwing up"

"Umm" Landon stalled trying to think. "She's been really tired all morning"

"Will you please hold while I go talk to the doctor?"

"Sure" Landon answered anxious to find out what doctor said. He was hoping he would tell him it was nothing and that he could stop worrying.

The secretary came back on shortly after leaving. "Sir, the doctor would like to see your girlfriend? Would you be able to bring her in some time this afternoon? We have an opening at 1:30. Will that work for you?"

Well seeing how it was Saturday Landon had no where else he had to be. Right now he was just concerned about getting Lisa all better. "Yeah that's fine. We'll be there at 1:30."

"I'll need your girlfriend's name to write down her appointment."

Landon had totally forget to give Lisa's name in his worry. "Her name's Lisa Reisert."

Landon hung up the phone and turned to look at Lisa who was still leaning against the wall looking absolutely miserable. "Leese, the doctor would like to see you today at 1:30. Do you think you can manage that?

Lisa slowly nodded her head in return to Landon's question.

Landon didn't want to get slapped again so this time he made sure she knew his intentions. "Lisa you can't stay in the bathroom all morning. Is it okay if I carry you back to your bed? I'm sure you'll be more comfortable there."

Lisa had no energy left to argue with him but she was sure he was probably right. So she let Landon pick her up and cradle her in his strong arms. She subconsciously wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head against his chest. Even though she felt pretty miserable she couldn't think of a time that she felt more secure than in his arms. Landon laid her down on her bed gently and covered her up so she was warm.

He wanted to stay with Lisa and make sure she was okay but he was worried about his presence disturbing her sleep again. Lisa really needed to rest so Landon decided to wait in the living room until her appointment.

He would call Joe after he heard what the doctor had to say.


	8. Doctor's Office

Since Landon had hung up with the doctor time seemed to be moving very slowly. Landon had been back to Lisa's room it seemed a million times to check on her. He was careful not to wake her up any of those times. When one o'clock finally came Landon felt bad about waking Lisa up. Not just because of what happened last time he accidentally woke her up but also because he knew she felt horrible while she was awake.

Landon woke Lisa up as gently possible. She stirred slightly when Landon shook her arm. "Hey, Leese it's time to go see your doctor."

"Too tired. Want to sleep more." Lisa mumbled clearly still asleep.

"Come on Leese," he coaxed gently shaking her. "The doctor will make you feel better. He can't tell you what's wrong unless you go to the appointment."

Lisa finally opened her eyes slightly after all of Landon's coaxing. "Well that wasn't so hard now was it sleeping beauty" Landon smirked.

Lisa glared at Landon. She was not in a joking mood. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep. She knew that she needed to go see the doctor in order to get better and find out what was wrong.

Lisa went to sit up and wobbled a little bit from the nausea she presently was feeling. Landon reached his arms out to steady her. "Can you make it to the car by yourself?"

"I think so" Lisa replied determined to get there by herself. She hated needing other people's help.

Landon held Lisa's elbow on the way to the car just to assure himself that Lisa wouldn't fall. Lisa allowed Landon to steady her only because she was comforted by the fact that he didn't want anything to happen to her. Lisa enjoyed the feeling of being protected by him.

She often wondered if anything would have changed if she had meet Landon sooner and had been at her house that night. Lisa shuddered though when she realized that if Landon had been at her house he could have been really hurt by Jackson. Lisa had a feeling that Landon would do anything to protect her even if it meant putting himself in danger.

Landon helped Lisa into the car glad that the doctor's office was only a short drive from Lisa's house. In that short period she still had managed to fall asleep in the car.

Landon pulled in the parking lot and turned off the car. "Hey Leese, wake up we're here." Lisa slowly removed her seatbelt and opened the car door. Landon was there waiting to help her out of the car.

Once inside Lisa took a seat and Landon signed Lisa in. He joined her in the waiting area while they waiting for her name to be called. Lisa grew tired of waiting and took to using Landon's shoulder as a pillow. Lisa got up though when she heard her name being called.

Because they really hadn't been together that long Landon decided to wait out in the waiting room. He didn't want to make Lisa uncomfortable while she talked to the doctor.

Lisa looked over her shoulder obviously expecting Landon to follow her.

"Go on. I'll be waiting right here when you are done." He reassured her. With Landon's assurance Lisa followed the nurse back to the examination rooms.

She didn't have to wait long for the doctor to come in. Upon entering the room he smiled at Lisa in an attempt to make her feel even slightly better. "So I hear you aren't feeling too well."

"Yes, doctor I feel horrible."

"Would you mind telling me your symptoms that you are experiencing?"

Lisa tried to think of what was ailing her the most. "I've been really tired and my boyfriend made me breakfast this morning but it made me sick. Those are my two main symptoms."

"Nothing else?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment."

"This is important. Can you tell me when your last period was?"

The question seemed a little sudden to Lisa. She thought about it for a minute and realized she couldn't remember exactly but it wasn't abnormal for her to miss a few in a row. That had been happening ever since she was a teenager. "I honestly don't remember" Lisa answered slightly embarrassed at her lack of knowledge.

"Lisa, I need you to answer a question for me. Is there any chance that you could be pregnant?"

"No" Lisa said suddenly not even thinking. How could she be pregnant? Then she realized that there actually was a possibility that she could be pregnant. The idea of pregnancy never crossed her mind for the reason of why she was feeling so ill. "Actually, I mean yes." She said correcting herself.

"I think you should have a pregnancy test preformed. Considering the fact that your symptoms are common with women who are pregnant and since you can't remember when your last period was. Is that going to be okay with you?"

This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be pregnant especially not with Jackson's baby but she had to know for sure. "Yes, that's fine with me" Lisa said her voice starting to tremble slightly. How was she going to tell Landon? Would he even still be able to love me after I tell him the truth? Lisa's head was spinning with this new revelation.


	9. Phone Call

After the test was finished the doctor informed Lisa that he would have the secretary call with the results of the tests. Lisa thanked the doctor for his time and left the examination room. Lisa found Landon still patiently sitting in the waiting room anxious for answers. When Lisa appeared in the door he couldn't help but rush over to her.

"So did the doctor tell you anything? Is it the flu?"

"The doctor wasn't sure what was wrong so he's supposed to call me with the results of the tests he performed" Lisa answered hoping Landon wouldn't ask what exactly the doctor was testing for. She was trying to be vague on purpose.

Landon accepted Lisa's answer like she had hoped. "Well, you'll let me know what the doctor finds out right, Leese?"

"Of course, Landon don't worry so much. I'm going to be fine. I just don't feel very good right now. Ir's probably something I ate." Lisa was getting tired of lying to everyone but it was better than the truth at this point.

Landon took Lisa back to house and reluctantly left her there by herself. Lisa didn't want Landon to be there when she got the phone call from the doctor. She was sure she would be fine by herself until tommorow.

As tired as Lisa was she had trouble sleeping that night. She didn't want to believe that her doctor might be right. Her symptoms were very common of pregnant women. Why hadn't she thought of it in the first place? She tossed and turned all night occasionally glancing at the alarm clock thinking that if she stared at it long enough time would eventually speed up.

The next morning Lisa had finally managed to fall asleep but was awoken by a loud ringing. When she realized it was her telephone she forced herself to get up out of bed to answer it.

"Hello" Lisa asked trying to sound awake.

"Hello, Ms. Reisert. This is Dr. Johnson's office calling. We have the results from the pregnancy test that you took yesterday. The results showed that you are indeed pregnant. The pregnancy explains all the symptoms you've been experiencing the past couple of days. "

Lisa dropped the phone in shock. Why did everything bad seem to happen to her?

"Ms. Reisert are you still there?" the secretary asked fearing she had lost the phone call due to the silence on the other end.

"Yes, I'm still here" Lisa managed to answer after she had picked up the dropped telephone.

"Dr. Johnson would like you to set up an appointment with an obstetrician as soon as possible. They will be able to give you more information and hopefully answer any questions you have. If you would like we can recommend you someone."

"No" Lisa said trying not to sound ungrateful. "That's okay I think I'll be able to manage it on my own. Thank you for calling."

"My pleasure" said the secretary obviously thinking this was usually a cause for celebration for most women.

After Lisa hung up the phone she had a strong urge to rip the thing out of the wall. Instead she just fell down on the kitchen floor and sobbed quietly to herself. What a mess she thought. What was she going to do? She couldn't bring herself to kill the baby or give it up for adoption. She heard too many stories about abusive foster homes to do that. She didn't think she could pretend the past never happened also knowing there was a child out there that had part of her inside it. She had no choice she decided but to have the baby. That meant she was going to have to tell people about her past or continue lying.

More questions just kept forming in her head about her decision. How would she ever love this baby? It would be a constant reminder of the hurt Jackson had caused her. All of this was his fault. That stupid bastard ruined her life but she wouldn't let him ruin anymore of it. She would find a way to make this work. She would find a way to make Landon understand.


	10. The Return of Jackson

The amount of time she sat on the floor was unknown to her. She probably would have continued sitting there wallowing in her sadness forever if someone hadn't started knocking on her door.

"Just a minute" Lisa yelled picking herself up off the kitchen floor and rushing to the bathroom. She dried her eyes and splashed some water on her face in an attempt to hide the fact that she had recently been crying. Once satisfied that she looked as good as she was going too she headed towards the front door.

Lisa wasn't prepared for who was standing in her doorway though. She tried to slam the door shut when the person standing in front of her stuck their foot out to prevent the door from closing.

"Now is that any way to treat a guest. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"How dare you show up here again after what you did to me." Lisa spat angrily at Jackson who was still standing in her doorway. At least this time he had knocked on the door instead of forcing his way in she thought.

"Well, if you won't invite me in I guess I'll just have to invite myself in then" Jackson stated pleasantly and pushed past Lisa into her living room.

Lisa turned around so she was facing Jackson once again. "What are you doing here? I thought you got what you wanted last time." Lisa asked still disgusted at the thought.

"Oh I did, Leese but it was such a short visit last time. Don't you agree?"

"Go to hell, Jack. You know that I would be more than happy to never have to see you again."

"Ouch, Lisa, that's hurts." Jackson said feigning sadness

"Says the man who can't feel any sort of emotion besides anger" Lisa shot back at him. "So why don't you tell me the real reason why you're here so you can leave."

"Anxious to get rid of me already, why is that Lisa? Obviously you didn't miss me as much as I missed you." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

In some twisted way Jackson really had seemed to miss her. She couldn't tell whether he really believed that she might have missed him

"How could I possibly miss you Jackson after everything you've put me through? Wonderful Jackson Rippner can't be that dense can he?" Just the thought of him made her skin crawl.

Jackson made himself comfortable on her couch and Lisa decided to remain standing to keep distance between her and Jackson. She wondered if she would be able to reach the phone or the door before he would stop her.

"Rumor has it that there is a new guy in your life." Jackson said attempting to make small talk.

Lisa opened her mouth to say something until Jackson cut her off.

"Yes, Lisa I've been watching you. Did you really think I would just walk out of your life forever? Don't you remember me telling you that I was going to steal you?"

Lisa couldn't believe this. Jackson was trying to have a conversation with her like nothing terrible or traumatic had happened between the two of them.

Lisa had enough of his pleasantries. "I think it's time for you to leave. I haven't been feeling well and my boyfriend will be stopping by soon to check on me. I don't want you here when he shows up."

"Maybe I want to meet him Leese. Meet the guy that was able to steal your heart away."

Lisa rolled her eyes. She knew Jackson was jealous that another guy was able to do what he had failed at. Landon had stolen Lisa's heart away and Jackson couldn't stand it.

"And what are you going to say to him Jackson. Pleased to meet you, by the way I raped your girlfriend." Lisa wasn't going to keep pretending it didn't happen any longer. She wanted Jackson to admit to what he did to her.

"Maybe I love you too and you just never gave me a chance" Jackson stated simply with an annoying smirk that Lisa wanted to wipe off his face forever

Like that was supposed to make what he did to her okay.

"Love, Jack, is a two way street and I have no romantic feelings for you and never will. It's about time that you accepted that. " Whatever Jackson was feeling may be love but he had a twisted way of showing it. "I'm not some toy that only belongs to you and you can do whatever the hell you want with. Landon actually cares about my feelings. _He_ would never do anything to intentional hurt me

Lisa last comment had sent Jackson over the top. He had never been very good at controlling his anger. In a flash he had Lisa up against the wall holding her by the throat. "I know you love me. Say you love me." Jackson needed to hear Lisa say that he loved him even if he got it by using force.

"I… I can't breathe" Lisa managed to choke out while trying to gasp for air.

Jackson didn't loosen his grip he needed to hear Lisa say she loved him back.

"Jackson, please."

"You want me to let go?" Jackson asked sarcastically mocking Lisa's request. "Give me one good reason why I should." If she wasn't going to tell him what he wanted to hear he didn't see why he shouldn't just finish the job he started. He eased up enough though to hear whatever excuse she managed to come up with.

"Because I'm pregnant." Lisa said quietly. She wasn't even sure Jackson had heard her until she felt the pressure on her neck completely disappear.

"You're what?" Jackson yelled back completely letting go of Lisa. Lisa leaned against the wall trying to catch her breath.

"I said I'm pregnant."

"Wow, Leese you work fast considering your past. How long have you even been dating that guy to have slept with him already?"

"Landon isn't the dad. You are." She was sure Jackson was going to be thrilled at the idea. No use lying to him she figured. Jackson would have found out the truth eventually and then he would be even angrier when he realized Lisa lied to him.

"How could this have happen?"

"Well you see one night not too long ago some psychopath broke into my house and forced himself on me and…" Lisa began clearly enjoying the opportunity to mock Jackson.

"Shut up, Leese. I'm still just as armed as I was that night. Don't push me. Unless of course you think your family would rather be planning a funeral rather than a baby shower. "

"How do you know it's mine?" No, Jackson hadn't used any kind of protection but he really hadn't thought about the possibility of this happening.

"Maybe, because I haven't slept with Landon. He actually respects my feelings and doesn't view rape as a fun activity like some people. Hasn't anyone ever told you how babies were made Jackson? That's how I'm so sure Landon isn't the daddy." Lisa continued to mock him ignoring his warnings this time. "Despite what you may have been told babies don't just magically show up on people's doorstep."

Jackson was angry about the way Lisa was treating him. He wasn't an idiot and he didn't appreciate being talked to like a child. "I know how babies are made. You don't need to explain it to me." Jackson shot back at her. Jackson ran his fingers through his hair. This was quite a predicament for him, wasn't it? He needed time to think about this. Jackson walked towards the door preparing to leave.

"Are you leaving already Jackson? Lisa asked pretending to be disappointed "That's such a shame. There's so much more we could have talked about to."

Jackson turned around to face Lisa once more. "Don't worry, Leese, we'll have plenty of time to talk later." With that last statement Jackson turned out and walked out of her apartment.

Lisa was too exhausted too care about what Jackson meant by his last statement. Right now all she wanted to do was take a nice long nap. Lisa fell asleep on the couch to drained of energy to make the extra effort to walk to her bedroom.


	11. Will you still love me tommorow?

Lisa had finally started sleeping normally again for a change when another noise woke her up. It was like nobody wanted her to get any rest. She decided she had enough of dealing with people for the day. If she ignored them long enough surely they would get the message and go away. After 15 minutes of the person knocking and then pausing periodically waiting for her to answer the door she realized her plan wasn't going to work. Obviously the person wasn't just going to go away like she had hoped. Finally she decided that she had no choice but to get up and answer the door. She just hoped it wasn't more bad news or another unexpected visitor.

Lisa opened the door to reveal Landon leaning in the doorway.

"Hey, beautiful are you feeling any better?"

He didn't wait for Lisa to invite him in and entered the living room.

Lisa blushed at being called beautiful. She thought she probably looked like shit right about now.

"Yeah, much better. Thanks" Lisa said faking a smile that she hoped he would buy. She had always been a terrible liar though.

"You don't look like you are feeling much better"

"Well, I just got up. Maybe that's why." That wasn't a complete lie. She had just gotten up. She just chose to leave out the phone call that had woken her.

"Oh, I didn't wake you up did I? I'm sorry Leese, I knew I should have waited longer to come check on you." Landon felt like a complete ass now for waking Lisa up when she needed to be sleeping to get better.

Lisa knew she couldn't let Landon think he was the reason she woke up. He would feel awful knowing that and she couldn't let him feel awful for something he didn't do.

"Actually I was already awake when you stopped by." She mentioned while making herself comfortable on the couch. "I just had music on and didn't realize that you were at the door."

"Oh really" Landon asked intrigued thinking maybe Lisa was lying just to spare his feelings. He joined her on the couch taking the spot next to her. Instinctively he started rubbing her back trying to relax her and hopefully make her feel better.

"Yeah, the phone actually woke me up"

"Was it the doctor's office? Did they call with the results of the tests they performed yesterday? Is it anything serious?" Landon asked not even pausing to take a breath between questions. Lisa knew he was anxious to find out what was wrong.

"Wrong number actually." She wished that the phone call had been a wrong number. She was a terrible liar and her eyes refused to make eye contact with him afterwards

"Are you sure it wasn't the doctor's office calling?" Landon asked. He had noticed Lisa's eyes were avoiding his after her last statement. A horrible thought stuck Landon then. He gently lifted Lisa's chin so she was facing him again "You don't have some fatal disease or something that you don't want to tell me about, do you?" The thought was too terrible to be real. He couldn't imagine losing Lisa after they had had so little time to spend together.

"No, it's nothing like that" Damn it she thought right after she said it. According to her the doctor's office hadn't even called her yet. She wouldn't know that it wasn't some kind of disease and Landon had picked up on this little bit of information.

"How do you know Lisa, I thought you said the doctor office hadn't called yet?"

Lisa could no longer hold back the tears that had been threatening to break through ever since she opened the door and saw Landon standing there. She didn't want to start crying in front of him but the tears started forming at the corner of her eyes anyways.

"Earlier, when I said that the phone call was a wrong number I lied." Her voice was cracking from being so upset.

"Its okay, Leese. It was just one little lie. No harm done" He stated as he brought her closer to his chest and held her against his body while rubbing her back.

Lisa didn't want to but she pushed away from him. "No, it's not okay. Things are never going to be okay ever again." Lisa yelled at him. She didn't know why she was taking her anger out on him. Jackson was who she should be taking her anger out on but he wasn't there. Landon was just trying to help and she felt bad for yelling at him.

"Whatever it is you can tell me and I'll be here for you. I would never leave you Lisa. Haven't you figured that out by now?" he reassured her.

"Really, no matter what?" she asked looking up at him with tear-filled green eyes.

"Never"

"The doctor's office did call." Lisa answered not wanting to explain anything further

"And?" Landon asked anxious to hear what the doctor had to say.

Lisa grasped both of Landon's hands in hers. "Landon, according to the doctor I'm pregnant."


	12. When you say you love me

A/N This chapter is short. I'm very sorry. I'll try to update again soon to make up for it. So I hope I don't disappoint anyone with this chapter since Landon kind of starts showing an emotion other than niceness and stuff. I just didn't feel like somebody could stay nice the entire story especially after being told his girlfriend is pregnant and not knowing the circumstances. Also Lisa I think would be too ashamed/embarrassed to tell Landon the truth right away.

I would like to especially thank Maya Beebop for her very helpful review. Your right, I don't like commas very much. I may not have even needed a comma in that last sentence Commas really aren't my strong point. I tried to provide more insight/thought as to what the characters are thinking in this chapterlike you mentioned in your review. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you to everyone else who reviewed the last chapter.

Landon couldn't believe what Lisa was telling him "You're what?" he asked unsure that he had heard her right.

"I'm pregnant." Lisa answered on the verge of completely breaking down.

How could this be happening? Landon thought. His girlfriend that he had loved with all of his heart was pregnant by some other guy. He had wanted to marry Lisa someday and have children but _his_ children. Not some other guy's children.

"How could this have happened Lisa?" He asked. Not sure of whether he should be angry or sad about the situation. "I thought you loved me, Leese?" Landon asked spinning Lisa around since she had started walking away from him. She couldn't deal with how upset Landon seemed to be.

"I do love you. I've never loved anyone but you." Lisa quietly replied. Landon was the first guy she allowed herself to get close to and the first guy Lisa truly loved. Sure, she had boyfriends back in high school but her feelings towards them were nothing compared to how she felt about Landon.

"If that's true, Lisa, how did you get pregnant?" He was getting angrier the more he thought about it. He knew he should be giving Lisa a chance to explain but he just couldn't get over the shock and disappointment of what Lisa had just told him. If she had loved him she wouldn't have risked what they had together by sleeping with another guy. "You didn't love the guy but you still slept with him anyways? Is that what happened?" Lisa face was streaked with her tears by now.

"No, that isn't what happened." Lisa's speech was broken up by her choking back sobs. Landon didn't seem to acknowledge Lisa's last statement.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" She repeated over and over again to no one in particular. She wasn't sure what she was apologizing about though. She hadn't asked Jackson to come and rape her. She certainly didn't want to be pregnant. She hadn't wanted any of this to happen.

Landon got up from the couch and walked towards the door. He couldn't deal with this right now. It was just too much.

Lisa got up and ran after him. "Landon, baby, you told me I could tell you anything. You said you would never leave me." Lisa felt like her heart was really breaking into two. She finally let herself get close to somebody. He had convinced her that he would never do anything to hurt her. Whether he realized it or not he was breaking her heart when he had promised not too. Lisa really couldn't blame him for leaving though; she hadn't been completely honest with him about how she ended up pregnant. She was just so ashamed of the truth to actually tell him.

"I just need some time to think about everything." Landon replied forcing himself not to look at Lisa. He could tell Lisa was upset but he needed some time alone to think. He didn't want to say anything else he might regret later. He had done enough damage already. It would be better for both of them he decided if they took some time apart.

Lisa couldn't believe what was happening. When she needed Landon the most he was just going to leave her. She didn't think she could do this on her own.

"I'll talk to you later. Okay, Leese?" And then he left without kissing her goodbye and without looking back.

The door shut with a loud click and then he was gone. Lisa was left all alone to deal with the ramifications of what Jackson had done to her.


	13. Crazy as Me

A/N Yay, more Jackson. Sorry, no dialogue in this chapter and it's super short but I just wanted to add achapter on Jackson's thoughts about everything. The next chapter is longer I promise. Easter Break starts tommorow so there probably won't be an update until Monday. Please remember to review, it makes me happy.

It had been over a week since he had visited Lisa and he still couldn't stop thinking about what Lisa had told him.

He continued to watch her even more after that day. After all she was carrying his child. To Jackson this was just another reason Lisa was his. While watching Lisa he noticed that her boyfriend had stopped showing up to her apartment. Had she told him about being pregnant? Had she told him how she got pregnant? He doubted she had told him how she got pregnant considering the fact that he seemed to have left her. He was worried that eventually Lisa would be ready to tell him everything. The last thing he needed to deal with was an angry boyfriend. Not that he couldn't handle her boyfriend, it would just be an inconvenience to him.

If Lisa did manage to tell him Jackson didn't doubt that her boyfriend wouldn't be all supportive and want to help raise the baby. He'd be dammed though if somebody else was going to take his place. It wasn't so much the fact that Jackson wanted to play the role of dad. It was more of the fact that the baby and Lisa belonged to him not that boyfriend of her.

He despised the guy even though he never met him. He tried to deny it but he couldn't. He was jealous of the other man in Lisa's life. Her boyfriend had managed to succeed where he was unable to. Try as he might he was unable to make Lisa fall in love with him. It didn't matter to him that Lisa was happy because of her boyfriend. He was more in love with her than anybody else could everbe. As soon as he decided it was safe he would find a way to secure his role as "dad".


	14. Lonely Runs Both Ways

A/N Sorry about the chapters being short. I figure that a short update is better than no update, right? To make up for it here is a long chapter for you all to enjoy. Also remember to review. The e-mail alerts make me very happy.

She didn't know what to do. She had to tell Landon the truth if he was going to be able to understand. If she wanted any kind of a future with Landon she was going to have to be honest.

She couldn't let him just keep believing that she was a whore who would sleep with any random guy. Tomorrow she would call him and ask him to come over. She would explain everything to him after both of them had had time to calm down.

After Landon left, Lisa laid on the couch subconsciously rubbing her stomach and thinking about the best way to tell Landon what had happened. She knew she was going to have a hard time telling him about the rape but it was the only way she was going to get him back.

Lisa fell asleep on the couch thinking about everything. She had been so tired lately that she couldn't stop herself. She was awoken again by the phone ringing in the kitchen. As Lisa got up to answer the phone she couldn't help thinking that this was starting to get old. She really hoped it wasn't more bad news.

"Hello" Lisa answered hoping that it was Landon calling to apologize for his actions yesterday.

"Hi, Honey. I was just calling to see if you were still feeling sick." She should have known it was her dad.

"Hi, Dad. No, I'm feeling much better." She was a much better liar over the phone.

"I'm glad to hear that. How's Landon? Has he gone home then?"

A knot was forming in Lisa's stomach but there was no way her dad would have known not to mention Landon

"Yeah, he left after we ate breakfast together." She really hated lying to her dad but she couldn't take him being mad at her too.

"I know how busy you are so I'll let you go. You're sure everything is okay. I can come over if you want."

"I'm fine Dad. I'll talk to you later." Lisa replied feigning happiness.

Since she was up she figured she try to get a hold of Landon. His phone rang and rang until the answering machine finally picked up. Lisa should have figured he would be screening his calls. She was probably the last person he wanted to talk to.

"Landon if you're listening to this message I really need to talk to you. I haven't been completely honest about everything with you. I need to explain this to you. Please call me back when you feel like talking." Lisa waited and waited for Landon to call her back but he never did. Lisa kept leaving messages on his machine but she was starting to lose hope with everyday that went by that he hadn't called her back.

Landon had heard every single message Lisa had left him. He just wasn't sure if he was ready to talk to her again. He knew he probably should have given her a chance to explain the situation. When he first heard the news he hadn't really let her explain the situation. He just assumed she didn't love him anymore and slept with some random guy. She deserved to be able to tell her side of the story. The number of times she called was starting to decrease and each time her voice seemed to be pleading with him to come back to her.

Lisa had thrown herself back in work. She hadn't gone to see her obstetrician yet but she figured she was only probably three months pregnant at the most. She could still work her normal hours pregnant or not. She just couldn't stand to be alone. Whenever she was alone she would get lost in thought about Landon, the baby or Jackson so she stayed around people as much as she could.

Not seeing Lisa for almost two weeks made Landon realize what an ass he had been to Lisa and how much he truly missed her. He loved her and he had promised he would never leave her for any reason. She had believed him and then he had broken that promise. Well, now he was ready to make it up to her and keep the promise he had originally made.

He showed up to her apartment that afternoon. After knocking for several minutes and not getting any answer he was ready to leave. Lisa's neighbor came out after hearing he noise.

"If you're looking for the girl that lives there I hardly ever see her anymore" Landon knew the only other place Lisa would be.

When Landon walked into the Lux Atlantic he didn't see Lisa working but he knew she wouldn't be anywhere else. A plan had quickly formed in his head of how to surprise Lisa. He walked up to the counter where a young girl he didn't recognize was working.

"Welcome to the Lux Atlantic. Can I help you?" the girl asked in a cheerful tone

"Yes, you can. I would like a room for two."

"Would you like one bed or two?" the young girl questioned.

"One bed will be just fine. It's only going to be me and I'm not planning on staying long."

The young girl took care of the transaction and handed him a receipt. "Enjoy your stay at the Lux Atlantic"

"Thanks, I'm sure I will"

Once he got up to the room he would call down to the front desk. He would then ask if the manager could come up to deal with a problem in the room. Since Lisa was obviously never home anymore this would be his only way to talk to Lisa about everything.

Landon got situated into the room, which didn't take long since he didn't have any luggage with him. He thought for a minute about the excuse he could use to get Lisa to come up to the room.

He could say the air conditioner was broken except it was winter and that was more of a maintenance problem anyhow. What could he complain about that would require a manager to come talk to him.

After thinking for a little bit he decided the easiest thing would just be to complain about how dirty the room was and demand to talk to the manager.

Landon dialed the front desk and pretended to have an argument over the phone with one of the many Lux Atlantic employees he had convinced them that he needed to talk to the manager personally.

Lisa was supposed to be up shortly after she finished some paperwork she had been working on all morning. Landon ran to the bathroom to make sure he looked presentable for Lisa and then made himself comfortable on the couch.

Landon was watching T.V. when he heard someone knocking on the door. He quickly answered it and saw a confused Lisa standing in the doorway. She looked even more beautiful than he remembered.

"Landon, what are you doing here? I've been calling you and you've never called me back"

He could tell she was shocked to see him

"I wanted to talk to you about everything. I never really gave you a chance to explain "your situation" before I left. Will you come in?" He asked motioning to the living room.

"I guess I have time. So I assume there is no actual problem that needs taken care of?"

"No, there's no actual problem with the room. I just needed a way to talk to you. I stopped by your apartment earlier and you weren't there." Landon couldn't believe he almost let Lisa go. Now that Lisa was standing in front of him he wanted to kiss her so bad and make up for all the time they had been apart.

Landon sat down on the couch and hoped Lisa would join him. "I guess I'll start. First off I want to apologize for acting like such a jerk last time. The news shocked me and I didn't know how else to react. Will you accept my apology and take me back?"

Lisa joined him over at the couch and sat down taking his hand in hers. "Of course I accept your apology. The time we spent apart was horrible. I missed you more everyday."

"Well I'm glad we got that all settled." Landon leaned in to kiss Lisa like he wanted to since she stepped foot in the hotel room.

Lisa turned her head to avoid the kiss. "I'm sorry Landon. I can't kiss you yet." Landon looked confused. He had thought they had made-up. "I still have something I need you to know and then you can decide if you still want to kiss me."

Landon didn't care what Lisa had to say. He would still want to kiss her no matter what.


	15. I Should Tell You

A/N First off thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I really enjoy getting the feedback. So this chapter was really hard to write so therefore it is kind of short. They are still in the hotel room in case you were wondering. Just pretend that nobody is starting to miss Lisa downstairs. I'm sorry if it seems to drag out too long or if Landon doesn't seem to pick up on what Lisa's trying to tell him right away. I just don't think that would be the first thing he would think of. I think considering his feelings towards Lisa he wouldn't want to think that anything traumatic like rape could have happen to her. Also I want Lisa to be the one to tell him.

"I hadn't planned on getting pregnant." Lisa stated breaking the silence that had settled in the room. "I didn't want to believe it when I first found out. I was scared that I was going to lose you forever."

"I'm sorry that I left earlier. It was stupid of me but I'm going to make it up to you. I'll be the best dad there ever was to your baby."

Lisa smiled at his last statement. The baby wasn't even his and he wanted to help take care of it.

"Does this guy know that you're pregnant? Why would he just leave you?"

"Yes, he knows." Lisa stated avoiding his other question of why did he leave.

"And it wasn't some one night stand with some random guy like your thinking. I didn't even have any feelings for the guy."

"Then why did you sleep with him? That's what I'm still trying to figure out." Landon was doing his best to play the sympathetic boyfriend but Lisa wasn't making it easy for him. He was so confused about the whole situation.

"I told you I didn't sleep with him." Lisa almost shouted at him. Lisa knew she was making this harder by dancing around the actual issue and she should just say it. If only it was that easy.

Landon had started pacing the room unable to sit still any longer. He was trying really hard to control any feelings of anger he was having and be supportive.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time I checked it took two people to make a baby." The sarcasm in his voice was evident to Lisa.

"Landon, I realize that this is hard for you to understand but you really need to listen to me." Lisa said in an attempt to calm Landon down. "Also, maybe you should sit back down" she calmly stated and led Landon back to the couch.

Lisa paused and took a deep breath before continuing.

"You know how I keep saying I didn't sleep with him?"

Landon nodded his head unsure of where this was going.

"What I really meant was I didn't want to sleep with him, the father I mean." Her eyes turned to the floor too embarrassed now to look at Landon.

"What are you saying Lisa?" he asked hoping he had misunderstood Lisa. How dare anyone think they were allowed to hurt her. This whole time he had been thinking that it was her fault that she got pregnant. He couldn't believe how he'd been treating her this whole time. What was he thinking? But how was he supposed to know how she really got pregnant?

"Landon, he raped me." She said quietly feeling relieved that she had finally managed to tell Landon the truth.

Landon didn't know what to say in response to what Lisa just told him. So he did the only thing he could think of at the time. He pulled Lisa in close to him and she laid her head on his shoulder finally allowing herself to let go of all the sadness that was still being held inside of her.

He gently rubbed her back while holding her close to him.

Lisa never brought the subject back up after that day. Landon was fine with that since Lisa seemed to be dealing with it on her own.

Lisa hadn't wanted to go into detail with Landon. It had been hard enough just to tell him that it had happened. She was just glad that Landon now knew the truth.


	16. Am I More Than You Bargained For?

A/N So I doubt any of you actually wants to read just about Lisa being pregnant. So I'm just going to jump ahead into the future to when Lisa has had her baby and help the story along.

The title of this chapter is from Fallout Boy's song "Sugar We're Going Down" because I went to see them in concert Saturday night and it was beyond amazing.

since I'm skipping ahead to her third birthday the italics stuff is a kind of a recap of right after she was born. I felt like I needed something before heading right to her being three

_Lisa and Landon were now proud parents of a beautiful, healthy little girl. It didn't even matter that Landon wasn't her biological dad. He fell in love with her as soon as he held her and she smiled at him. _

_She resembled Lisa in every way except her eyes. Her eyes were the same glowing blue as her father's. The difference though was her daughter's eyes didn't hold the coldness Jackson's always portrayed. _

_The first time her daughter had looked up at her heart had melted. She may have his eyes but Lisa was determined not to let her daughter remind her of him. What her father did wasn't her fault. Lisa couldn't imagine now how something that ended up being so wonderful could have resulted from something so terrible. _

Alexis had just celebrated her third birthday and would soon be starting preschool. Lisa worried about her starting preschool. She worried about her enough already when she was at work and her dad was watching her. Now she was supposed to just drop her daughter off to be watched by some stranger. Since she had a daughter of her own she now understood why her dad was always calling to check on her. It worried Lisa that she hadn't seen or heard anything from Jackson. She knew she shouldn't completely let her guard down. He had told her that they would have plenty of time to talk later

Since Alexis was only three Lisa hadn't seen any reason to explain what happened to her 'real' dad quite yet. She wasn't exactly hiding secrets from her she just would rather wait until she was older to tell her the truth. She figured she had plenty of time to tell her later. Alexis already called Landon daddy and legally he was since last year. Lisa had been so excited when Landon had proposed to her. So Lisa and Landon decided together that it was better not to confuse her as of now. They were a happy family and that's all that mattered to her.

The next couple of weeks went very fast for the whole family. The Lux Alantic was busier than ever due to it being summer and families taking vacations. Whenever Lisa wasn't working she was taking care of Alexis or the housework. Landon had just started a new job and it seemed that recently he only came home long enough to sleep. He assured her things would eventually slow down and then he would be able to spend some quality time with her and Alexis

Before Lisa realized it summer had come and gone. Where had all the time gone? She had been thinking that a lot lately. At Alexis's birthday party she found herself thinking the same thing. To her it seemed like it was just yesterday that she brought her home from the hospital. To make it worse Alexis had taken to reminding her mother constantly that she started school in only two short days. Lisa hadn't forgotten because she had been dreading the day. She didn't want her little girl to be growing up so fast.

Monday morning Alexis was already in her parent's bedroom before it had even become light outside.

"Wake up" Alexis whined "Time for school." Alexis jumped on the bed when neither of her comments got any kind of response.

Landon woke up and turned to look at his alarm clock "Lexi, honey, its five in the morning why aren't you still sleeping?"

"Too excited. School starts today." She announced bouncing on the bed some more waking up her mother.

"Lexi, what are you doing in here?" Lisa asked obviously unaware that Landon had just asked the same question

"I'm too excited to sleep."

"How bout daddy reads you a story and then you go back to sleep for a little bit longer. It's not quite time for school yet."

Alexis liked hearing stories and ran off to her bedroom to pick one out.

Landon slowly got up to follow his daughter. Landon couldn't help but glare a little at his wife. "What a wonderful suggestion, Leese. Make me get up and read to her."

"Well you wanted her to go back to sleep didn't you? Reading to her is the easiest way to make her fall back to sleep."

This didn't seem to make him feel any better about having to get up at five in the morning.

"Did I mention how much I love you?" Lisa asked placing a kiss on his cheek. This always worked.

"Not today no but you know I do like being reminded" Landon answered with a small smile and kissed Lisa on the forehead on his way out of the bedroom.

Alexis was already situated in her bed with story book in hand when Landon walked in.

"Didn't we just read this one?" he asked her looking pointing to the cover of the book

"Yes, but it's my favorite" she answered drawing out the word favorite to make sure he got the point.

He wasn't more than a couple pages into the story when he noticed she had finally fallen back to sleep.

"Well, that didn't take long" Lisa commented when he walked back into the bedroom and got back in bed.

"That's because I'm an amazing father"

"You really are. You're also an amazing husband" Lisa replied kissing him on the lips

"Well, you're an amazing wife and mother."

"Thanks"

He laid back down with her and extended his one arm so it was laying across her stomach and he was holding Lisa close to him. This intimate contact with him no longer freaked her out. Now she just felt safe and secure.

It seemed that no sooner had they gotten back to sleep that it was time to for them to get up to go to work and take Alexis to school.

Lisa went into to wake Alexis up but it turns out she had already gotten up for a second time on her own.

"Look, Mommy, I dressed myself" Alexis stated beaming with pride as Lisa opened the door to her bedroom.

Lisa had to admit she was dressed. Everything just wasn't on properly. Her shirt was on backwards and her socks didn't match. She had managed to get her jeans on correctly. Thanks goodness for Velcro.

"You did a great job honey but do you mind if mommy helps you fix your shirt and socks."

With Lisa's help Alexis was finally ready to go to school. To bad her parents weren't.


	17. Never Talk to Strangers

Jackson was a very patient person when it came to waiting for something. He had to be considering his line of work. He had been watching Lisa periodically in his free time since their last visit over three years ago. He still worked for his previous employers trying to prove that the red eye flight would be his only failure. It was a good thing he had such a great success record.

By watching Lisa and her family he had figured out the best way to get to her. His plan had led him to be sitting outside Alexis's school waiting for recess to begin.

He knew he wasn't going to be able to just walk into the school and pick Alexis up. He had a better idea and considering the fact that she was only three he doubted that this would be too difficult.

He had been watching her play by herself on the playground. She looked exactly like her mother with the exception of his eyes. All the other kids were playing with each other but she didn't bother to join any of them. She was a little young to already start to be loner like her mother had been until she met that husband of hers. That would just make his job easier. There would be no other children to tell any of the teachers that Alexis went off with some man.

He exited his car when he realized that the teacher's on the playground had been distracted momentarily.

Lisa had offered to stay with Alexis until she got comfortable at school but she was ready for her mother to leave before they even got there it seemed. She tried to be very independent in that respect.

She had known this day was going to come eventually. When Alexis didn't need her around all the time and she was just going to get more independent as she got older.

Alexis may have felt that she didn't her mom anymore but by the end of the day she still hadn't really made any friends. She was rather shy to start talking to the other children herself and nobody seemed very interested in talking to her.

Recess so far was Alexis's favorite part of the day. It had come once right after lunch and then they had a short recess before everyone went home for the day. She had been playing by herself when she dropped her ball and it rolled away from her.

She followed it towards the street forgetting the fact that she was supposed to stay on the playground unless she was with a responsible adult.

A young man with eyes just like hers was holding her ball she had lost.

"Is this yours?" he asked holding it out to her.

"Yes." she took the ball and starting walking away.

"What's your name?" he asked. He already knew the answer but his plan wasn't going to work if she just walked away from him

She turned back around to answer his question. "Alexis, but I'm not really supposed to talk to strangers my mommy and daddy told me so."

Jackson silently laughed to himself. He knew Lisa would have made sure to tell her daughter that.

Jackson walked up to Alexis and crouched down so he was down at her level. Alexis wasn't sure whether she should stay or run and get a teacher. He didn't seem like a scary person.

"Well if I tell you what my name is then we're not really strangers anymore now are we?"

"I guess not." The logic had made sense to her. Anyways strangers were scary looking. This guy was dressed very nice and wasn't dirty or anything. He looked completely normal just like her daddy.

"Well my name's Jackson. So, now that we're not strangers anymore maybe you can help me with something."

"What?" she asked inquisitively. Wondering how much help she could be since she had just only turned three.

"Well I was walking my dog the s'morning and he got away from me" he pulled a picture of a random dog out of his pocket trying his best to look heart broken. "Do you think maybe you could help me find him?"

"I guess so but my mommy is going to be coming soon to pick me up today." She answered. She decided to follow him since wasn't enjoying school as much as she thought she was going to.

Jackson took her hand and starting leading her away from the school. "He could be anywhere by now. So is it okay if we use my car to look for him. It would be a lot of walking otherwise."

"Okay" she didn't find anything wrong with going with him as long as she was back by the time school ended.

He opened the door for her and she got into the front seat. He realized it was dangerous for small children to ride in the front but he thought it might seem a little suspicious to have a car seat for no apparent reason.

"Mommy and Daddy never let me ride in the front seat." She stated to Jackson obviously excited to sit somewhere other than the back seat.

Jackson handed her the picture of the dog he showed her earlier. "I'm going to drive slowly and you tell me if you see the dog in the picture. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Yeah." She answered staring at the picture in her hand.

They had been driving for a couple blocks away from her school when Alexis just starting talking to him.

"I've been asking for a dog but I haven't gotten one yet"

The fact that she was talking to him more was a good sign to Jackson. It made him think she was getting comfortable with being him

"That's too bad. Maybe once you're older your Mommy and Daddy will get you a puppy."

He knew eventually she was going to realize that there was no missing dog. He tried to continue having a conversation with her hoping to distract her until they arrived at there destination.

"Do you like school?"

"None of the kids there like me." She answered sounding like she was about ready to cry.

Please don't start crying Jackson kept thinking to himself over an over again.

"It was only the first day. I'm sure you'll start making friends" this whole being sympathetic thing was harder than it looked. Jackson personally had never liked school. He had never made any friends and he was constantly getting picked on because of his name.

"My teacher is nice though" she stated as an afterthought.

Just as she had finished her last comment they had pulled up to his house.

"I thought we were looking for your dog? Why are we stopping?" She asked starting to get a little worried. She couldn't tell time but she was figured it was almost time for her mom to pick her up.

"This is my friend's house. Sometimes my dog likes to come visit them. So I thought maybe we would find him here." Jackson said trying to explain the abrupt stop.

"And what if he's not here?" She asked curious of his answer.

"I'm sure he'll show up eventually. Especially once he gets hungry and needs fed." He needed to start thinking up better answers or she just needed to stop asking him questions.

She got out of the car and allowed him to lead her to the front door.

"I don't see any cars. Maybe we should just leave"

Wow she was perceptive for a three year old who had bought his story of a lost puppy

He just needed to get her inside before she realized what was happening. He unlocked the door while still holding Alexis's hand and pulled her through the front door with him. He locked the door immediately after shutting it. He wasn't really worried about her opening the door since she wasn't tall enough to really reach the door knob.

He had disconnected the phone though because he had underestimated her mother and he wasn't going to underestimate her just because she was only three. Even if she didn't know her home phone number her parents had surely told her how to use 911 in emergencies.

She was starting to get scared and didn't know what to do. "I want my mommy. You said you would make sure I was back in time for her to pick me." Tears were starting to fall down her face.

"Your mommy will be here shortly. That is if she loves you enough to show up." Jackson said no longer trying to be nice. It was funny how he wasn't feeling any kind of bond with her. He had already accomplished his goal.

Alexis couldn't stop herself and just starting crying even harder.

"Stop crying." Jackson demanded.

But this just made her cry even louder. He couldn't deal with this right now. He roughly grabbed he tiny arm and led her down the hallway to a bedroom. He sat her down on the bed and she brought her knees up to her chest to comfort herself.

"Now you're going to stay in here until you can calm down. Once you've stopped crying we can have dinner. Got it?"

She nodded in response to his question. When he left she heard him lock the door behind him. She was starting to miss her mommy and daddy already. She wondered how she was supposed to get through the night all by herself.

When Jackson had come back to check on her later he found that she had fallen asleep. He decided not to wake her up just yet. They still had time to eat dinner. His luck she'll be like her mother and be too stubborn to eat with him anyways.

Hope you all enjoyed Jackson re-entry into the story. I figured her teacher would be too pre-occupied with getting a large class-considering it's Miami-ready to leave for the day after the short recess to notice one girl being missing on the first day. Sorry if this doesn't seem realistic to some people.


	18. Have You Seen This Child?

A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I tried to do some research on the procedures the police take for missing children to make this chapter more realistic.

Lisa had left work early for once, anxious to pick her daughter up and find out how her first day of school went.

Lisa watched as all of the other children left the school to board school busses or parent's cars. Not one of them was her daughter though. She waited until it seemed like the only people left at the school were teachers.

She wasn't going to panic yet. She was sure there was a logical explanation for this. As soon as she got home she would call her dad. He probably just forgot to tell Lisa he picked Alexis up for her.

"Hello" her dad answered cheerfully

"Hi, Dad. Please tell me that you picked Alexis up." Her question sounded more like one big word than a sentence.

"Slow down, Lisa I can't understand you."

"Did you pick Alexis up from school today?" she asked much slower than before

"No, I haven't left the house all day. What's wrong?"

"I went to pick up Alexis from school today and she wasn't there." Lisa had been hoping her dad had her daughter. Lisa was going through all the different possibilities of where she could have gone in her head.

"What do you mean she wasn't there?" Joe asked obviously wondering what could have happened to a three year old at school.

"I waited for her and she never came out." For someone who was so overly protective of her, he wasn't acting like this was a big deal.

"Well, have you checked with Landon? He probably picked her up and just forgot to tell you." Joe was trying his best to find a logical reason for his granddaughter's disappearance and calm Lisa down at the same time.

"No, I haven't but I will" she hoped her dad was right.

Lisa was starting to panic. She called him at work and found out that Landon hadn't picked her up from school either. Who else could she have gone with if neither Landon nor her dad had picked Alexis up from school. There was one last person that might be able to tell her something. She hopped back into her car to head back to the school to talk to Alexis's teacher. When she arrived back to the school and entered the building she found out that unfortunately everyone had left for the day. She wasn't going to wait any longer, for a "logical" explanation she had no other choice but to go talk to the local police

She sprinted into the police department anxious for them to find out what happened to her daughter. Everyone looked up when she rushed through the doors.

"My daughter's missing and I need you to find her."

"You're going to need to slow down Miss. Now can you give us a description of your daughter?"

"She's three years old and about 3 ft tall. She's got curly brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans today."

"Do you know how long she may have been missing?"

"I don't think very long because her teacher would have noticed if she was missing. All I know for sure is that I went to pick her up from school and she wasn't there. And no, nobody else that Alexis knows picked her up either I already checked." Lisa answered anticipating the policeman's question.

"Thank you for the information Miss. We'll alert the media in case she's still in the area and somebody might have seen her. We can go talk to the people living in the neighborhood and near your daughter's school but that's pretty much all we can do for now. The best thing for you to do is to just go home and just wait. We'll contact you if we find anything else out." The police officer hated having to tell distraught parents that there was nothing they could really do to help.

Lisa did what the police officer advised her to do and begrudgingly went home and just waited to hear anything. Landon was supposed to leave work as soon as he could so he could be home with Lisa. He wanted to be there whenever they found out more information.

* * *

Jackson had been watching some TV while he waited for Alexis to wake up. The television program he had been watching had just been interrupted by a "special news bulletin"

A picture of Alexis had come on the screen while a seemingly invisible newscaster read information for the public to hear.

"A local three year old has been reported missing. She is suspected to have disappeared from her elementary school and was last seen wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans. If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of the girl they are asked to call the Miami Police dept. or the number at the bottom of the television screen. Now we return you to your original programming"

Jackson turned off the TV no longer interested in the program he was watching. He smacked the arms of his chair.

"Damn it" he yelled. He should have known Lisa would go to the police when her precious daughter went missing. The police had never been able to find him before and this time wasn't going to be any different. His house was outside the area they were searching so he didn't need to worry about that and as long as no one saw Alexis no one could recognize her.

His was still confident that his plan was going to work. Lisa loved her daughter too much not show up.


	19. Desperate

A/N Thank you to everyone you reviewed the last chapter. Just so you know I may not be able to update again until the end of the week since I'm going to be busy studying for finals. Remember to review.

Lisa had followed what the police told her to do and she been waiting in her living room for any kind of information.

The phone rang and she quickly picked it up.

"Did you find her?" she asked hopefully thinking it was the police calling her.

"That wasn't very smart involving the police, Lisa."

"You, you took my daughter didn't you? She's missing and you have her." Lisa screamed into the phone at him.

"Let me think about that for a minute. Do I have a little girl in my house with brown hair and blue eyes? No, I don't think I do." He answered taunting Lisa.

"You have and I want her back. Why else would you be calling me?"

"I can't just call you to have a friendly conversation?"

"No, you can't. Now tell me where she is. She's only three years old Jackson do you realize how scared she must be?"

"Actually, the last time I checked she was sleeping quite peacefully."

"I want to talk to her. Put her on the phone Jackson." Lisa tried to sound firm in her request but she knew it wouldn't matter how she said it though if Jackson didn't feel like letting her.

"Aren't we quite demanding considering the circumstances?"

"Jackson, Please let me talk to my little girl." her voice was starting to tremble slightly, and she hated letting Jackson see how upset he was making her.

"Fine, you can talk to her but only for a few minutes."

Jackson walked down the hallway to the bedroom Alexis was sleeping in and unlocked the door. He crouched down in the front of the bed to try and wake her. He shook her gently but that didn't get any response. He tried to shake her a little harder and this time she moved slightly.

"Mommy?" she asked still asleep.

"No, but you need to get up Alexis."

Alexis opened her eyes and remembered that she wasn't in her own bedroom at home. Jackson handed her the phone without saying anything.

"Mommy?" she asked hopefully

"Yes, honey, it's me."

"Mommy, I'm scared when are you going to come get me?" she was obviously unaware of the fact that Lisa still had no clue where Jackson was keeping her.

"I'm trying Lexi. I'll be there as soon as I can. He hasn't hurt you has he?" If he dared to lay a finger on her she swear she'd kill him

"No" answered Alexis unaware of how dangerous Jackson really could be.

Jackson was getting impatient. "Say goodbye Alexis"

"Bye Mommy" Alexis said getting tears in her eyes.

Jackson grabbed the phone from her and saw how upset she was getting. Maybe letting her talk to her mom wasn't the best idea. _Please don't start crying again he thought_. Jackson put his hand over the phone and crouched down to Alexis level. "No crying. I need to have a conversation with your mother and I don't want her to hear you crying in the background."

Alexis bit her lip and managed to contain her tears this time.

"Good, you're a much better listener than your mother ever was" he replied sarcastically. He knew she wouldn't understand what he meant but for some reason that didn't stop him from saying it.

Alexis brought her knees up to her chest and intently listened to the conversation Jackson was having with her mother.

"There I let you talk to her, happy?"

"Yes, but why are you doing this Jackson."

Jackson realized the little girl was probably listening to everything he said and decided to leave the room before he continued any further. Alexis was going to try to hear what they were saying but she figured he would lock the door behind him. She decided to just stay put on the bed. Her mom had told her she was trying to come get her. She would just have to behave until she got here and nothing bad would happen she hoped.

"She is my daughter after all. I would guess you haven't told her that little bit of information."

"Like you care about her being your daughter. Why are you actually doing all of this Jackson. I assume you don't normally go around kidnapping young children?"

"Not normally, no. This isn't really about your daughter. It's more about the best way to get you to come to me."

"So let me get this straight you kidnapped and traumatized your own daughter just to use her as bait to get to me. I didn't think even you would stoop that low. You seriously need help Jackson." Lisa spat into the phone.

"Lisa if you want to find out where your daughter is I suggest you start being nicer. Maybe you start by taking some time to ponder that thought." He stated sarcastically and hung up the phone.


	20. Waiting

A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

Landon had arrived home just after Jackson had hung up on Lisa. He was trying his best not to show his worry and provide support for Lisa. She was worried enough for the both of them. He sent his stuff down and walked over to where Lisa was standing.

"Have you heard anything?" he asked quite hopeful to hear good news.

"No, not yet" she lied. She wasn't planning on telling Landon about Jackson's phone call. She didn't see the point in telling him when it would just worry him more when it wouldn't help. He would want to go to the police with the new information but Lisa knew the only thing that would accomplish would be to make Jackson angrier.

He seemed to be unstoppable. He had been able to pull off who knows how many high profile assassinations and notbe caught by the police. She was sure disappearing with a small child would be even easier for him.

She'd wait until Jackson called her back and gave her more information before she saidanything to Landon.

Landon talking to her had broken her out of her isolated thoughts. "It's going to be okay Leese. We'll get her back, you'll see."

Lisa wasn't so sure about Landon last statement. Jackson hadn't called back again that day like she had been hoping. She realized this was all just one big game to him and he obviously didn't care who he hurt in the process.

Nighttime came and Landon had to convince Lisa to come to bed.

"Staying up all night isn't going to help the situation. It's only going to make you really tired."

She may have agreed to come to bed but that didn't mean she slept very well. The whole night she kept thinking about Alexis and how she was doing all alone.

After hanging up with Lisa, Jackson had gone to check on Alexis once more before he went to sleep. He couldn't afford to let anything happen to her if he wanted Lisa to show up. At some point during his conversation with Lisa she had fallen back to sleep again and he noticed her right thumb was still stuck in her mouth.

She had fallen asleep on top of all the blankets on the small bed. It was getting cold and he was worried she'd be cold later so he decided to cover her up with an extra blanket from the closet. He wasn't completely without a heart after all.

He hadn't planned on hanging up on Lisa earlier but he didn't like the way she was talking to him. He figured maybe she needed some time to think about her daughter and the situation she was in and then she would be more ready to listen. He had everything planned out perfectly and no one was going to screw it up for him.

Jackson woke up early that morning. He got up and got dressed and then made his way to his daughter's bedroom. He unlocked the door and was unsurprised to see her still sleeping. He decided to leave door unlocked figuring that she really couldn't go anywhere. He went to the kitchen to find something suitable for breakfast. Lexi had slept through dinner that night and was more than likely going to be hungry and want breakfast. In between fixing breakfast he started pacing around the kitchen. Lisa was trying to show him that she was in control again bygetting the police involved. She wasn't damn it. He would call her as soon as they were down eating breakfast. Jackson decided to make himself a cup of coffee to drink to calm his nerves while he waited for Alexis to wake up.

Alexis had been awake when Jackson had come to check on her and she tried her hardest to pretend that she was still asleep. She found that he didn't bother her while she was asleep. Her stomach growled in response to the fact that she hadn't ate anything for dinner last night. She got up from the bed noticing the blanket that wasn't there last night when she had fallen asleep.

She walked over to the door making herself as tall as possible and she found she could reach the door handle if she stood on her tip toes. She tried turning it and to her surprise the door opened into the hallway. Alexis was a little worried about leaving the security the bedroom had offered but she couldn't stay in the bedroom for ever. Even she knew that.

There were multiple doors in the hallway each one was closed. The living room was the first room she came too. She noticed a TV and couch were about the only furniture in the room. Her living room at home was full of toys for her to play with. The kitchen was second and Jackson was sitting at the table reading the morning newspaper while drinking his coffee. She stood in the doorway of the kitchen too nervous to say anything.

Jackson looked up from the table aware of the fact that he was being watched.

"I see you're up. Are you hungry? I have some cereal you can eat." He was unsure of what toddlers ate when he went shopping for food and assumed that all children liked cereal.

Alexis seated herself at the table in front of the empty bowl and spoon. Jackson held up two boxes of cereal for her to choose from and poured a small amount of the one she choose into the bowl for her. He retrieved the milk from the fridge and poured some milk onto the cereal despite Alexis's numerous comments that she could do it by herself. What was it with these women wanting to be so independent.

Alexis silently ate the cereal avoiding eye contact with Jackson. When she finished Jackson told her she was allowed to go watch some tv in the living room while he did the dishes but only if she behaved while she was in there. If she wasn't going to listen she would go straight back to her bedroom.

Jackson finished the dishes and had the kitchen all cleaned up when he decided that it was time to call Lisa. He entered the living room and turned off the TV.

"I was watching that." Alexis said offended that he turned off her television program

"Well I need to make another phone call so you're going to have to go back to your bedroom."

"Why?" she asked wanting to know why it mattered where she was when he made his phone call.

Why were young children always so full of questions he thought.

"Because I'm the adult and I say so and you'll do what I say without questioning me."

Alexis hadn't moved to get up and Jackson was starting to get frustrated.

"Now are you going to walk back on your own or am I going to need to carry you?" He asked hoping Alexis would want to get up and start walking on her own when she realized she had no choice in the matter.

She got up and headed back to the bedroom she had just come from not to long ago. He followed her to make sure she made it back to the bedroom and decided to lock the door this time. He didn't need her hearing his phone call with Lisa that was the whole reason he sent her back to her bedroom.


	21. I Hate Everything About You

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Also special thanks to amandathevampirelove for helping with this chapter. Here's the confrontation everyone's been waiting for.

Jackson picked up the phone and quickly dialed Lisa's home phone number. If he hadn't been so inept at taking care of young children he would have held off on calling Lisa so soon.

Lisa was pacing in her kitchen when the phone rang and made her jump. "Hello" she said hesitantly.

Jackson's voice was smooth over the phone. "Hello Leese."

"When can I get Lexi back. What do you want me to do?" she asked. Knowing now from his previous call that this was about her.

He chucked darkly. "When you start paying attention and listening to what I say.

I'm ready to listen now. I just want my daughter back." Lisa would allow Jackson to think he was in control if it meant getting her daughter back safely.

He spoke calmly, but there was menace in his voice. "Listen to me Leese, I'm not stupid. You just go outside and talk a walk," he gave a short pause, "Alone. When you're nice and outside, I'll find you. We'll talk then."

Landon was in the bedroom but he swore he heard Lisa mentioned Lexi's name. "Lisa, who's on the phone?" Lisa cupped her hand over the receiver. "No one important I just have to leave the house for a little bit." Landon didn't plan on letting Lisa go anywhere by herself. He left to go get changed and Lisa brought the phone back to her ear. "If I come meet you you promise you won't hurt Lexi and you'll give her back to me?" she knew he had told her he never lied but she still wasn't sure whether she should trust him.

"I promise everything will be how it's supposed to be." he said reassuringly.

"Tell me again why I should trust you?" Lisa asked. She knew deep down why she was trusting him. He had her daughter and he was the only person standing between her and getting her back.

"Because I have Lexi and I think you want her back." His voice turned cold. " and because I've never lied to you, have I?"

"No, you haven't and yes, I do want her back. How exactly do you plan on finding me if I'm just walking though? She questioned him. Maybe Jackson hadn't thought his plan through as much as he thought he did.

He gave a short laugh. "Think if who you're talking to Leese. See you later." He paused, and then said menacingly. "And if there are any police..." He said making a tsking sound. "You won't like the results." With that last statement he hung up the phone.

She hung up the phone wondering what to do. Of course she wanted her daughter back. But going by herself seemed a little dangerous but she knew better than to make Jackson mad. "Landon, I'm going out for a walk. I'll be back later" she yelled towards the bedroom where the door was now shut. Landon would wait until she left and then would follow her to make sure she was safe.

Lisa grabbed her cell phone in case she needed it and left the apartment quickly. Every step she took she couldn't help but keep looking over her shoulder. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched by him. Landon left the apartment shortly after Lisa and followed her down the street catching up to her at the corner.

"Landon, why did you follow me? You need to listen to me. This is important you need to go back to the apartment and wait. You can't be seen with me." Landon was confused by what Lisa was telling him but he wasn't going to just leave Lisa by herself.

Jackson hung up with Lisa and debating what he was going to do with Alexis. He couldn't just leave her by herself but he also couldn't take her with him. He didn't need to be distracted by trying to watch a three year old when he met Lisa.

His only option he decided was to call an associate and have them watch Alexis. All they would have to do would be go back to bedroom and check on her periodically to make sure she was fine and was staying out of trouble.

His associate arrived promptly after he called him which was a good thing since he was already growing tired of waiting to go meet Lisa.

Jackson had the associate sit down on the couch while he explained some ground rules to follow while he was gone.

"Rule number one you don't touch her. Got it? Rule number two make sure she stays out of trouble and you check on her periodically. Rule number three you don't let anyone into the house. Anything should happen I left the number you can reach me at in the kitchen. Think you can handle that?"

The man sitting on the couch nodded in response to his question.

"Good. I'll be back shortly." he reassured and left the house

Lisa and Landon continued walking to a destination unknown to them. Lisa had been unable to convince Landon that it would be best for him to go home. There conversation came to a halt when car pulled up beside them and stopped. Jackson exited his car and Lisa could feel her heart stop for a minute.

"I distinctly remember telling you to come alone, did I not Leese?" Jackson asked slamming his car door shut.

"He followed me" Lisa tried to explain.

"Who is this guy Lisa? Would like to fill me in on what's going on?" Landon asked confused by what was taking place.

"Landon this is Jackson, Alexis's father." Lisa replied casually. She hoped if she acted like it wasn't a big deal herself Landon would keep his cool.

"You, you're the guy." Landon spat wanting to kill the guy standing in front of him. Lisa grabbed a hold of his shirt in and effort to restrain him. She knew how dangerous Jackson could be and wasn't about ready to let Landon get hurt. "How dare you touch my wife." Landon yelled.

"Lisa is mine and always will be." Jackson responded back.

"I hate to break it to you but Lisa is my wife and she loves me and only me." Landon replied pushing Lisa behind him to protect her from Jackson.

"I guess Lisa didn't tell you about my phone call."

Landon turned around to face Lisa. "What phone call is he talking about Lisa?"

"The one where he said I was supposed to meet him if I wanted to get Alexis back."

"You mean he has Alexis. Why didn't you tell the police Lisa? They would have been able to help us." He was upset that his wife withheld this important information.

"I didn't tell you because the police wouldn't have been able to do anything. Landon you don't understand he's dangerous and the police would have just made him even angrier."

"Wow, Leese that's the most logical thing you've said this whole conversation. I'd love to stay and chat longer but me and Lisa have places to go."

"What makes you think I'm going to leave Lisa with you? Just give us our daughter back and we'll just forget this whole situation."

Jackson's eyes narrowed dangerously. He really didn't like this man.. He completely ignored Landon and turned his attention to Lisa.

"How long do you think a child can stay at my house without getting into trouble?" He spoke softly. "Get into the car."

Lisa was alarmed at Jackson's last statement. "You let your three year daughter home by herself" she questioned stunned that even Jackson would be that stupid.

He sighed. He pulled the gun out that had been hanging unobtrusive at his side. He hadn't wanted to have to use it but Lisa was being so uncooperative. "Get. In. The. Car." Jackson repeated slowly with more force this time.

Lisa didn't move too shocked by what was happening. Jackson grabbed her arm to pull her towards the car. "Oww, Jackson you're hurting me." Jackson didn't loosen his grip until he got Lisa to the passenger side of his car. Landon just stood there knowing there was nothing he could do without risking Lisa getting hurt.

Jackson tugged on her wrist once more, "Get in."

Jackson opened the passenger side of the door and Lisa reluctantly climbed in.

Jackson threw a dirty look at Landon. "I suggest that you don't call the police. You wouldn't want someone getting hurt." Landon had remembered about what Lisa told him earlier about the police not being able to catch him even if he did go tell them this new information.


	22. Arrival

A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Sorry for the delay. I've been busy with work and wanted to add something to this chapter but haven't really been motivated lately to finish it. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. It's my birthday today (Saturday) so you should all review because of that.

Landon slowly walked home debating what he should do. Should he risk Lisa and Alexis's safety by going to the police. If he did go to the police all he could really give the police would be a description of the guy. He had no clue where they were headed and he didn't even manage to a license plate number or anything.

According to Lisa the guy was dangerous so he thought maybe he should take his threats seriously and not involve the police. He personally wanted to kill the guy as soon as he met him to make up for all the hurt and pain he had caused Lisa.

Lisa was a very clever and resourceful woman and he was hoping that she would be able to find a way home without the police. The police did after all already have Alexis's picture on file he figured somebody would have to recognize her and then he wouldn't have to worry about risking their safety. She had to find a way to get herself and Alexis back home. He didn't know what he would do without them otherwise.

* * *

Lisa was unsure of what to make of the situation she got herself in. She thought maybe she would be able to memorize the streets and turns Jackson took to their destination. She wouldn't be much help to her daughter and herself if she had no clue where they were in the first place. It seemed like Jackson had already thought of this since he had seemed to be taking random turns to throw Lisa off

Lisa had forgotten she still had her cell phone in her hand that she had grabbed off the table until Jackson reached over and snatched it from her.

"You won't be needing this." he said tucking the phone into he pants pocket

"Where are we going?" Lisa asked quietly. The fear she felt that night was starting to come back.

"Home." He said casually. He continued on with his evasiveness for a couple more turns, before actually going to the house.

"And what is the point of all this Jackson. Do you suddenly have the urge to want to play house? You never really struck me as the domestic type"

He turned his eyes to her for just a moment, and then pulled her in. He turned to fully look at her. "I'm just getting what's mine."

"So it doesn't matter that Alexis has a loving father at home. As for me Jack, I'll never be yours."

He narrowed his eyes. "You already are mine Lisa and as for Landon, her loving 'father'", He rolled his eyes at his comment "I can take care of him."

"You touch him or Alexis and I swear you'll regret it" Lisa replied angrily at what he was implying.

He smirked nastily at her. "Lexi," He said using her nickname to make her angry. "Is mine and I'll do as I please."

Lisa wanted to punch him so bad for his comments but she knew that wouldn't turn out well for her. She noticed that they had pulled in a driveway in front of a quaint house. She would have never suspected Jackson to live here. She tried to open the door and found it was locked. Jackson came around and opened the door grabbing her arm. "Don't get cute. Remember I still have Alexis inside." He continued holding her arm not trusting her not to run away and he led her up to the front door.

Lisa tried to shrug his arm off but to no avail. Jackson opened the door and pushed Lisa inside. Lisa nearly lost her balanced and fell but she caught herself in time.

"This is Lisa Reisert" Jackson stated introducing Lisa to his associate. "Actually her last name is no longer Reisert since she decided to go and get married" Jackson stated disdainfully and corrected himself.

"She's the one that screwed up the Keefe job, isn't she." His associate asked intrigued to meet the one woman who was able to take down one of the best managers in the business.

"Yes, that would be her." He said with disdain.

Jackson turned back to his associate and got a report on how things went while he was gone and then dismissed him from his house.

Lisa had been busy taking in the different windows and doors. She started to wander off from Jackson down the hallway. Jackson grabbed her wrist forcefully. "No running off by yourself. I don't trust you that much."

"Well then if I can't explore by myself I want you to take me to my daughter."

"Fine, but I'm not leaving you alone in the same room with her for long. I know what you're thinking as soon as you can get Alexis you're going to try to leave. Well I have news for you it isn't going to work like that." Jackson replied dryly hopefully crushing any escape plans Lisa had forming in her head.

He led her to her bedroom door and unlocked it for her.

Lisa was stunned. "You locked your daughter in a room? She's three where did you think she was going to go? I bet she can barely reach the doorknob on her own."

"I made this mistake of underestimating you so I wasn't going to let that happen again."

Lisa didn't care anymore she was just happy to be able to hold her daughter again. Alexis had her back turned towards the door and turned her head slighty at the sound of it opening.

"Mommy! You came. I knew you would. I missed you." She exclaimed jumping into Lisa's outstretched arms.

"Of course I came honey. I would never intentionally leave you anywhere."

"Where's daddy?" Alexis asked looking around. "Why didn't he come with you?"

"He had to stay at home."

"Can we leave now mommy? I'm ready to go home." She asked innocently.

Lisa glared at Jackson. "See what you're doing to her." She said quietly so only Jackson would be able to hear her.

"I think that's enough time for now. Mommy has to leave now." Jackson said unsympathetically.

"Why does my mommy have to leave?" Alexis asked "I don't want her to leave me." She starting to sniffle which led to her crying again. Her mom had just gotten there and now she was going to leave her again.

"Great job Jackson, you made her cry." Lisa scolded. She picked Alexis back up in her arms to comfort her. "Don't worry. Mommy isn't going to leave you."

"Have you forgotten Leese that I'm the one giving the orders here and I say its time for you to leave. You can come back later."

Lisa ignored Jackson demand and laid Alexis down on the bed. Lisa knew she had to do something to calm Alexis down. "If you'll try and take a nap, I'll tell you a story."

Alexis nodded at Lisa's offer.

Jackson impatiently stood in the doorway waiting for Lisa to finish the story she was telling. She finally finished and Jackson ushered her from the room. He went to lock the door behind them when Lisa spoke up.

"Is that really necessary?" Lisa asked knowing that when it was time for her to escape with Alexis it would be much easier with the door unlocked.

"Yes, not because I don't trust her. I don't trust you." Jackson said coldly.


	23. You Belong to Me

A/N So with a lot of helpful advice and suggestions from emptyvoices this chapter has been edited and changed quite alot I think. I feel that it is much better now though. Remember to tell me what you think when your done.

After leaving Alexis alone in her bedroom Jackson proceeded to lead Lisa down the hallway to yet another spare room. Lisa entered and turned back around to face Jackson.

"You're not going to get away with this." She said angrily "And I don't trust you enough to let my daughter out of my sight." she said attempting to push her way past Jackson to get back to her young daughter.

Jackson pushed her backwards with such force she fell onto the bed behind her. "You forget who's in charge here. As long as you're here with me you'll do as I say. Got it?" he asked impatiently.

"I'll never let you control me or my daughter." Pushing herself off the bed, she attacked him with a sudden fury. Jackson seized Lisa, propelling her back against the mattress immediately straddling her on the bed. Wrenching her flailing arms above her head, he dug his fingers into her chin.

"It seems we have a little problem now."

"You mean other than the fact that you're holding me and my daughter captive you selfish bastard" Lisa asked sarcastically.

"I'd watch my mouth if I were you Leese."

"Yeah and what are you going to do if I don't? You need me to take care of Alexis, remember?" She asked defiantly

"Keep it up Lisa and you'll find out. You do not want to try me." Jackson said menacingly.

"More empty threats, Jack?"

"Not a threat Leese; just a promise. My associate is currently parked outside Landon's house just waiting for my call and personally I would like nothing better then to see him die in agony but that's up to you. So, what will it be? Ready to pay attention?"

Lisa was silent in response to Jackson's dire warning.

"Now, this is how things are going to work. Since your husband had to follow you we will be leaving shortly. I'm not going to risk staying here long enough for him to alert the police. We're going to go on a little trip." He said smugly. "You try anything while we're out in public and trust me you'll be sorry or more specifically Alexis will. Understand?"

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Lisa felt horrified at the very thought of being taken away further from her home.

Jackson slapped her across the face. "What did I say about testing me? Trust me; it's not a good idea." Lisa suppressed her reply as she realized that enraging him would not help her to escape safely with her daughter.

"We're finished here. Put your arms behind your back."

"Excuse me?" Lisa asked surprised.

"You heard me, Lisa. Put your arms behind your back. Don't make me do it for you."

Lisa complied with his order as Jackson walked up behind her. He roughly tied her wrist together. "I'll be back later. Don't…"

"Get cute" Lisa finished for him "You really need to get a new line"

"It's getting late maybe you should try getting some sleep." He said before exiting the room and locking the door behind him

Lisa sat on the bed trying to figure out how to comfortably lay down with her hands behind her. She would wait until they left the house to try to escape. She would make him start to trust her and then it would be easier to leave with Alexis once they were outside. Her first instinct was to try to get her hands free but then there still was the problem of the locked doors. Other methods of escape just seemed futile.

She gave up out of frustration and decided that maybe it was better to allow Jackson to believe she was behaving for him_. If Landon was here he would know what to do._ She thought despairingly. Landon and Alexis would be her motivation to get away from Jackson and not give into his control.

* * *

Jackson made some phone calls and was able to get some extra clothes for both Lisa and Alexis delivered to his house so he wouldn't have to worry about that later. When he was finished he decided to go check on Lisa. _They could be a happy family_, he thought. _If only she would give me the chance._ They already had a daughter together and the only thing missing from their perfect family would be a son.

He knew that Lisa would refuse to have another child with him but Jackson would thoroughly enjoy breaking her until she complied. There would be no husband this time to try and get in the way of what he wanted. He didn't really need the children necessarily to complete his idealized fantasy but he realized quickly that using Alexis as leverage was a good way of keeping Lisa under control. Having a son would just give Jackson more power over her as she would fight to protect both her children from him.

He was surprised to find her where he left her on the bed with her hands still tied behind her back. She had fallen asleep in the time he was gone and he decided it would just cause him more problems if he woke her. "I see you're finally learning to listen." He said quietly to himself and slipped out the door.

After Lisa, he checked on Alexis. Once he was satisfied that everything was under control he decided to get some sleep himself. It would be a long day tomorrow.

The next morning he woke up early and hurried downstairs in order to make the final preparations for the trip. He took a quick shower since he knew Lisa was still sleeping soundly in her bed. Once dressed, he walked down the hallway towards the two bedrooms and unlocked the door to let himself in to check on her.

He grabbed her shoulders and impatiently shook her awake. She slowly opened her eyes realizing that the previous day hadn't been just nightmare but a grim reality.

She struggled to sit up without the use of her arms and glared at Jackson who was standing over her. "Exactly how long do you plan on keeping up this whole pretense of a family." She asked angrily.

"Hmm," Jackson said pretending to think. "Until I get tired of you."

She kicked him hard in the shins causing him to stumble and Jackson cursed from the sudden pain as Lisa tried to run for the door. She didn't get far before Jackson seized her ankle yanking her backwards, causing her to fall to the floor.

Pullingher roughly to her feet, he pushed her against the wall, gripping her shoulders.

"That wasn't smart Lisa. All you managed to do was piss me off. Maybe you forgot what happens when you don't pay attention." He said angrily and then he quickly drove his knee into her stomach. She instinctively bent over gasping for air but he forced her back upright. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him "Do you need more of a reminder? Perhaps we should bring Alexis over here and she can see what happens when you don't behave." he said viciously, waiting for her to respond.

She shook her head numbly. "What's that Lisa? "You don't want your daughter suffer?" he asked mockingly.

"Please, don't." she said quietly. "I'll behave. I promise, just let her go. She doesn't deserve this."

"I really don't think you're in the position to be making any demands." He released his hold on her and threw her back on the bed as she pushed herself towards the headboard in an attempt to put distance between them. "I was coming back to ask if you were hungry and if you wanted breakfast but I don't think you deserve that right now. Maybe later when you've learned to mind your manners." he said walking out of the room not waiting for her to reply.

Jackson knew he shouldn't let his anger get the best of him but she made him livid with fury, yet there was something about her that he loved. If he couldn't have her nobody would. He had wanted her ever since he got the Keefe job and was obsessed with stalking Lisa to learn all about her life and habits. Her husband simply didn't deserve her as much as he did. Jackson had gone through much more trouble to get Lisa all to himself. She belonged to him and he would never willingly let her go. After he had calmed down and decided that he wouldn't do anything he would later regret, he went to check on Alexis. She wasn't awake yet either but he wasn't in the mood to wait for her to rise on her own.

He shook her far more gently than he had Lisa and she slowly opened her eyes. Jackson waited as she sat up in the bed and become more alert.

"Are you hungry?" he asked calmly.

She ignored his question and looked frantically around the room insisting that she wanted to see her mother.

"First you have to eat breakfast and then maybe you can see her if you behave well for me." He said mildly.

"No, I want to see her now" she demanded.

Jackson fought to keep calm"That's just not possible"

"But I want to see her now" she said her voice getting louder with each of her demands

"I said no" He exclaimed furiously as Alexis shrank back against the bed in fear.

"Now," he said, his voice becoming calm. "Would you like something to eat?"

* * *

Lisa sat on the edge of the mattress praying desperately that Alexis was all right since she hadn't seen her since last night. She was worried sick about her daughter's safety when she wasn't around to protect her from anything Jackson might do. It worried her even more since he insinuated to Lisa that he wouldn't refrain from harming her if the need arose. She took a deep breath to regain control of her emotions.

Even if she wasn't showing it, she was scared, more so for her daughter than herself. She had convinced herself that she could handle herself and take whatever Jackson's twisted mind came up with. Alexis was so young and Lisa worried that she wouldn't be able to cope with this situation much longer. She knew she had to get them away from Jackson somehow.

If Jackson really did lose his temper and seriously hurt one of them, the results would be devastating. With that idea in mind she struggled to get her hands free and loosen the ropes. She realized after several minutes of straining against the bonds, that the rope was too tight and her wrists ached from the resulting abrasions from the effort. She leaned against the headboard in frustration, contemplating what she should do next.

Jackson waited for Alexis to be finished with her cereal while he finished packing. They couldn't leave yet since he had to wait for his final arrangements to be confirmed and his itinerary delivered.

He knew Alexis would keep asking to see her mother and decided that he would use that as leverage to make Lisa behave properly. He was sure Lisa also knew how badly her daughter wanted to be with her and would comply with his demands to be able to see her again

He walked Alexis back to the room and told her to stay there until he came back. She obeyed but she couldn't help but wander over to the door so she could hear what was going on.

Jackson unlocked the door to Lisa's room and let himself in.

Lisa had been watching the door waiting for his return and pushed herself further back against the headboard to restrain herself from wanting to do further bodily harm to him that would just anger Jackson more.

"What do you want now?" she asked angrily

"I just thought you would like to know that your daughter is asking for you."

"When can I see her?" she asked hopefully

"Well that depends on whether you plan on behaving for me. Are you going to do follow the rules? This constant bickering is starting to get old."

"I will," she said, eager to see her daughter again.

"Good to hear that, Leese. Now take a shower and get changed. Alexis needs a bath before we can leave."

He put fresh clothes down on the dresser and walked over to the bed, removing his knife cutting through her ropes swiftly.

Lisa rubbed at her chafed wrists and forced herself to get up off the bed and walk past Jackson to Alexis' room. Once inside the bathroom Lisa turned the water on so Jackson wouldn't be able to hear her speak, deciding to seize the opportunity she had to talk to Alexis without Jackson being around.

Lisa bent down to Alexis' level while she helped remove her old clothes and spoke quietly. "Alexis, Mommy has something very important to tell you and you need to listen to me very carefully. Do you think you can do that for me?"

Alexis nodded in response. Lisa continued speaking quickly, hoping Alexis would understand.

"I know you want to go home and see Daddy but we're both going to have to wait a little longer."

"Why?" Alexis asked

"Mommy will explain later. Right now you need to listen without asking any questions, okay?"

Alexis was silent looking at her mother fearfully.

"We're going to have to go on a little trip soon but I promise you that I'm going to get you home to Daddy as soon I can. Now this is the most important part. Mommy needs you to behave while we're here and during the trip so you don't get hurt." She knew Jackson wasn't opposed to inflicting harm on her but she didn't know how long he could stay calm even if Alexis was a defenseless toddler. "The second thing is that if Mommy says it's time to leave, you listen without asking me any questions. Do you understand all of that?"

Alexis seemed to understand everything Lisa had told her and she finished her bath and changed her into the new clothes Jackson had provided. She proceeded to carry her out to the living room where Jackson was waiting for them.

She put Alexis down and she reassured her that she would be back shortly and turned to go back into the bathroom. When she was all finished with her shower, she dressed slowly, walking back out to the living room attempting not to appear anxious around Jackson to attract his attention.

"Sure took you long enough." Jackson said impatiently. He turned his full attention to Lisa who shivered under his apparent scrutiny.

"I'm making lunch so you can either stay in the living room with Alexis where I can see you or you can go back to the bedrooms."

"The living room is good." Lisa answered thankful to be out of the bedroom.

"Try anything though and you'll go straight back there."

Lisa had no desire to be locked up again so she tried to comply with his demands for her daughter's sake. As long as she could stay with her daughter, she could ease the trauma Alexis had to endure.

Lisa had turned on a cartoon to entertain Alexis and had allowed herself to be distracted by it herself. She hadn't heard Jackson telling them that lunch was ready.

Lisa hadn't wanted to eat solely based on the fact that it was Jackson who had made the meal but starving herself wouldn't benefit anyone but Jackson. She would need her strength if she hoped to get away from Jackson with Alexis. She spent the majority of the meal coaxing her daughter to eat despite Alexis' reluctance.

Their lunch was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Jackson was annoyed at the intrusion and immediately forced Lisa and Alexis to go to the back of the house before answering the door.

"No one makes a sound." Jackson said forcefully to them before ushering them into a small room that Lisa hadn't even noticed before. She was certain his objective was to get rid of whoever was at the door before they got suspicious.

Lisa tried the door knob hoping that Jackson would neglect to lock the door in his haste however the door wouldn't budge. She searched the room for anything that she could possibly be used as a weapon for when he returned but found nothing. Walking over to the door, she placed her ear against it hoping to hear any part of the conversation determined to find out the identity of the visitor. Jackson cursed inwardly upon seeing the cops standing at the entrance but he did his best not to hide his sudden anger.

"Good afternoon, officers." he said in a pleasant tone. "Is there something I do for you?"

"We are canvassing the neighborhood because a little girl went missing a couple days ago. The girl's father came into the police station yesterday and has filed a missing person's report on the girl's mother as well. We're asking people in the surrounding area if they would mind us searching their premises."

"I'm afraid my wife's asleep. She's been really sick the past couple days." Jackson said, wanting them to leave.

Lisa could hear the sound of distant, unfamiliar voices that were questioning Jackson. Unable to grasp any of the precise words, she pressed her ear closer to the door.

Her heart sped up wondering if Landon had indeed gone to the police. Maybe this would be their one chance to be rescued. The only problem that remained was the door being locked. If she attempted to scream for help, she risked Jackson's retaliation for disobeying his orders to stay quiet. She had feeling his response to her behavior would be brutal.

Despite her frantic need for help, she hesitated momentarily in alerting them not wanting to have Jackson kill them in desperation to evade arrest. _This is our last chance._ Lisa told herself as she put Alexis down and pounded on the door hoping the strangers outside would be able to hear her.

The officers immediately stopped talking when they heard the thumping that resonated throughout the house and paused to listen further.

Jackson forced himself to contain his silent fury in order to pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Sir, there appears to be someone making quite a lot of noise back there." the younger officer pointed out.

"As I said earlier, my wife is really sick. Most likely she needs me and her strep throat has caused her to lose her voice."

"I see. Well, we hope she feels better. Sorry for disturbing you."

"Have a nice night officers." he said, offering them a smile as he shut and locked the door behind them.

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that, Leese." he mumbled to himself, quickly walking back to the room where Lisa was waiting. Once there he threw the door open pulling her into the hallway disregarding Alexis' presence. He shoved her against the wall, pinning her wrists above her head as she struggled in his grasp. "Would you like to know who was at the door?" he asked angrily. He didn't give her a chance to respond. "You're husband went to the police despite my warning." he said, yanking her forward and slamming her body against the wall once more. Lisa groaned in pain.

Alexis watched the scene in terror. "Mommy?" she asked frightfully.

"It's okay, sweetie," Lisa said, trying to reassure her.

"No, it's not okay." Jackson said sarcastically. "Because I warned him not to go to the police and I warned you to stay quiet, now somebody must pay the consequences."

Lisa brought her knee up quickly and hit him hard in his groin, the sudden pain causing him to release her arms. She grabbed Alexis by the hand and ran down the hallway towards the living room. Jackson was momentarily stunned and then his anger took over. He wasn't about to let Lisa get away from him and sprinted down the hallway after her. He caught up to her just as she got to the door and tackled her from behind, pinning her to the ground.

"I thought you said you were going to play along, Leese. Obviously I was mistaken." He said while he yanked Lisa up roughly from the ground and pulled her to his chest.

Alexis stood by the door helplessly, watching her mother being abused. "Go back to your room Alexis. You're mother and I have some business to take care of." he said forcefully. Alexis started to edge away from the door, terrified of what would happen if she didn't obey.

"No!" Lisa yelled knowing she had seen houses nearby. "Run Alexis! Get help!" Jackson tightened his hold on Lisa.

Alexis looked at the door and then back to her mother.

Jackson knew he couldn't let her get away but he knew he couldn't release Lisa. Alexis could easily be controlled by her fear of him. "Go ahead Alexis. Run to the neighbors but Mommy here is going to suffer." He said menacingly, pulling out the knife that he kept on his belt placed it near her throat. "You don't want Mommy to get hurt, do you?"

She backed away from the door and shook her head, while tears threatened to spill over onto her face.

"Honey, Mommy is going to be fine but you need to get away from here." she said attempting to ignore Jackson's obvious threat.

Jackson dug the tip of the knife into her throat and a trickle of blood ran down her neck. Lisa gasped at the sudden pain but tried to hide it for the sake of her daughter.

Alexis knew she didn't want to see her mother harmed because of her so she started walking back to her room. Jackson smiled to himself and followed her back the hall pulling Lisa with him. He locked the door behind Alexis once she stepped into the bedroom.

Lisa finally allowed the tears to trickle down her face now that her daughter was out of sight. Jackson pulled her into the other bedroom and pushed her down on the bed.

"Now what do you think is a fitting punishment for your little betrayal?" he asked her mockingly. "Maybe we should do a little recreation of that first night I came to visit you after the flight"

She shook her head pleadingly, unable to speak, frozen in horror at his suggestion.

"You didn't enjoy yourself, Leese?" he asked sarcastically. "Personally I did but I think you could have contributed a bit more. What do you say?" he asked derisively as he caressed her cheek.

"Get away from me" she screamed and jumped off the bed, backing away from him.

"You did get a wonderful daughter out of it. You should be thanking me. You love Alexis don't you?"

"Yes, I love her very much. It's not her fault her father is a sick, twisted bastard."

"Tsk, tsk calling me names isn't going to help you, Leese" he said, dragging her back to the bed.

"Please, don't do this to me again." she pleaded, after he propelled her violently onto the mattress.

"I told you that you would regret drawing attention to yourself. You don't think that is a fitting punishment for what you did?"

"No, because raping me won't change anything! You just get some kind of sick twisted pleasure out of this, don't you?" she screamed trying to force him backwards as she felt his hands tear into her clothing.

* * *

Alexis could hear them screaming at each other in the other room and she wondered if she made the right decision. She crawled into bed, curling herself into a ball as she covered her ears with her hands praying that it would all be over with soon. 


	24. Consequences

A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Big thanks to emptyvoices for her editing help and suggestions. Remember to tell me what you think when you're done.

Jackson seized Lisa's flailing arms as she desperately struggled to break free from his grasp.

"Stop fighting me," he demanded

"No way in hell." Lisa screamed. _I shouldn't have allowed it to happen the first time._

Jackson clamped his hand over her mouth muffling her cries. "Shut up, Leese!" Jackson said angrily.

Lisa pretended to comply with his order and then took the opportunity to bite down on Jackson's hand and he cursed from the sudden pain. He yanked his hand away, momentarily distracted and at the same time Lisa used her feet to kick him squarely in the chest knocking him backwards off the bed. Scrambling off the mattress, she ran down the hallway.

Jackson quickly picked himself up off the floor and sprinted after Lisa. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her back towards him as she yelped in pain. However she refused to give up. Fighting wildly against him, she yanked her arm backwards trying frantically to wrench herself free. Suddenly she felt his arms wrap around her chest successfully rendering her helpless as he pinned her thrashing limbs to her side.

"Let me go" she screamed furiously.

Jackson simply tightened his hold on Lisa as he whispered mockingly into her ear. "I'm a little disappointed in you Leese. I thought you cared about your family, especially with Alexis just down the hallway."

Lisa immediately froze at his words. "You won't hurt her." Lisa said, trying to keep her voice firm.

"Oh, really," he answered sarcastically. "I don't think you realize how serious I am. Maybe I need to convince you."

She wildly shook her head in agony at his suggestion.

"I warned you what would happen if you didn't listen to me." Jackson said calmly as he dragged Lisa back to the bedroom.

"Please don't do this" Lisa begged. "She's only a child"

Jackson didn't say anything in reply, pushing her inside the bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Lisa pounded on the door trying to delay Jackson's intentions. Unable to leave the room and protect her daughter, she leaned against the door straining to hear anything that might take place. She knew it was her fault that her little girl could be hurt now and it was tearing her up inside. Finding herself unable to stand any longer, Lisa fell to the floor unable to withhold her tears any longer

* * *

Jackson let himself into Alexis bedroom and found her curled up on the bed appearing like she had been crying but Jackson felt no sense of sympathy for her.

Alexis looked up to see who had entered and immediately looked away too scared to make further eye contact.

"Come here!" Jackson demanded from the doorway

Alexis shook her head refusing to go anywhere with him out of fear.

"Now!" he screamed at her

Alexis didn't want to leave the safety that the bedroom seemed to offer but she was growing increasingly frightened of what would happen if she refused. She slowly lifted herself off the bed and walked over to where he stood.

He quickly grabbed a hold of her small arm and dragged her towards her mother's bedroom.

Lisa pushed herself away from the door when she heard a key turning in the lock and pressed her body against the wall instead. Fighting back against Jackson now could just result in more danger for both Lisa and her daughter.

Jackson entered shoving Alexis in front of him and she immediately ran to her mother for comfort.

Lisa examined her daughter for injuries that Jackson may have inflicted but found none. _Maybe he didn't go through with his threat._ She thought hopefully.

"Get up" he said forcefully, glaring at Alexis who was sitting on her mother's lap. Lisa wrapped her arms protectively around her daughter.

"I'm the one you're mad at!" Lisa cried out. "Don't take it out on her!"

"You need to learn the consequences to your actions." he said smugly, enjoying Lisa's obvious pain

"You can't have her" Lisa said defensively, standing up with her daughter and pushing her behind her.

Jackson walked away from the door, slamming it shut with one swift movement.

He roughly pulled Lisa away and shoved her towards the bed while producing a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket. He quickly clamped one around her wrist while attaching the other end to the headboard.

Lisa immediately yanked on the handcuff, attempting to break free moaned in pain as the metal seemed to cut into her wrist.

Alexis tried to run to her mother but Jackson easily grabbed her by her small waist and lifted her away from the bed carrying her to the corner furthest from Lisa.

She frantically kicked at his shins in hopes that he would relinquish his grip. "Just like your mother." he muttered to himself as he set her down in front of him and grasped her arm firmly, holding her still.

Lisa couldn't bear to see her daughter so frightened, being completely unable to do anything to intercede.

"She didn't do anything wrong! Please Jackson, punish me! Not her!" Lisa begged him forcing back tears that threatened to emerge.

Jackson ignored Lisa's pleas and twisted the arm he was holding of Alexis' behind her back.

She screamed in pain and Jackson quickly clamped his hand over her mouth muffling her cry.

Lisa's anger at Jackson motivated her to pull harder against the restraints unaware of the pain of the cuff tearing into her flesh.

Jackson kept his hand over her mouth as she started crying and felt a surge of annoyance. He bent down behind Alexis so he was at her level and brushed the hair away from her ear. "This was your Mommy's fault. If she would have played by the rules you could still be lying safely on your bed."

"That's not true!" Lisa cried out "Your just using me as an excuse to hurt her, you coward!"

"Hey Leese," he said looking up at her from behind Alexis "How much force do you think it would take to break a three year old's arm?"

"You wouldn't…" Lisa said defiantly.

Jackson twisted her arm harder and Lisa heard her daughter cry out in pain followed by the sickening crack of bones.

Alexis grew limp in his arms from the pain and faded out of consciousness.

He glanced up at Lisa whose mouth was open in horror. "Maybe I should move onto her other arm?" he asked mockingly.

"Stop!" Lisa demanded "Please, just stop! I'll do whatever you want, I promise! Just don't hurt her anymore."

"I don't believe you." he said shortly

"I swear I won't fight you this time!" she pleaded, anxious for her daughter's agony to end.

Jackson gazed at Lisa uncertainly for a moment deciding whether or not to believe her and quickly came to a decision and released his hold on Alexis' other arm.

Alexis collapsed to the floor without Jackson to support her.

He turned away from Alexis and went to retrieve the first aid supplies in the adjoining bathroom. When he emerged he casually walked back over to Alexis and picked up her injured arm. With a quick movement of his hand he jerked the bone back in place and Alexis moaned in response to the pain. Before wrapping her arm up he injected her with a dose of cortisone to decrease inflammation of the joint.

Once finished Jackson picked Alexis up and approached Lisa who was still trying to break free of the restraint on her wrist. "When I come back, I expect you to live up to your promise" He said fingering Lisa's partly open blouse.


	25. Slow Motion

A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Thanks to emptyvoices for her editing help. Sorry if the chapter title seems random or lame but my sister was having me listen to a song called Slow Motion-( i think it's by third eye blind) but itwas covered by Panic! at the Discoand it had very weird strangelyrics. I thought it kinda fit and I couldn't think of any thing else to name it.

Lisa waited for Jackson's return fearing what would happen when he came back. As time passed there was no sign of Jackson and Lisa began wondering if he was going to return. Maybe she would finally get a break from this dreadful nightmare she was forced to endure.

After spending hours alone within the confines of her room, Lisa lost track of time. Judging by the diminishing light outside, she figured it was getting late. Her stomach rumbled also reminded her that it had been awhile since she had last eaten.

Lisa had tried to force herself to stay awake incase Jackson decided to return but after several hours, Lisa found it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open. All her attempts at escaping Jackson had left her feeling quite exhausted. Not even her concern about her daughter seemed to be able to keep her conscious at this point. She slowly drifted into an uneasy slumber.

* * *

Jackson had originally planned on going right back to Lisa's room until his cell phone rang and he knew it was probably best not ignore it. He walked out to the living room to take the call. The phone call took longer than he expected. It turned out it was an associate calling him about a possible job he might be interested in. It was late by the time he hung up and he ended up heading back to his own bedroom. 

Fighting with Lisa had worn him out more than he realized and all he wanted to do now was sleep. Anyways his absence may end up helping his situation. Lisa would be left wondering when he was coming back and when he didn't she would mostly likely be scared about when he was planning on returning. He would have plenty of time to deal with Lisa later.

* * *

The next thing she knew, Jackson had entered the room. Lisa awoke to the sound of the door being opened and quickly pushed herself into a sitting position at the head of the bed. 

"What do you want?" Lisa demanded

"I came to tell you that we're leaving." He replied shortly, opening the closet door to retrieve the suitcase he had tucked way in the closet.

"I'm not going." Lisa said adamantly.

"Yes, you are." Jackson's voice was filled with anger. "Unless you want to give me another reason to hurt Alexis?"

"You already broke her arm. What else could you possibly do to your daughter, Jack?" Lisa spat at him angrily

Jackson disregarded her comment and walked over towards the bed and pulled out the key to the handcuffs. "Now I'm going to unlock these but you're not going to run away."

Lisa shook her head violently in refusal to his command as he unlocked the cuffs.

Lisa rubbed at the chafed skin gingerly before Jackson roughly pulled her up from the bed and begin dragging her out of the room "Aren't you going to tell me where we're going?" she asked frantically. Her feet tripped on the floorboards as he shoved her towards the door of her daughter's room.

"We're done with stupid questions, Leese." He said shortly in reply. "Now go get Alexis and meet me out in the living room"

* * *

Lisa watched Jackson disappear down the hallway before opening the door. She slowly entered not wanting to scare her daughter and knelt down by the bed, gently stroking Alexis' hand in the effort to wake her. 

"Mommy?" Alexis asked drowsily.

"Yes, honey it's me" Lisa said softly. "I need you come with me, okay?"

Alexis pushed herself into a sitting position and allowed her mother to pick her up. Resting her head on her mother's shoulder, Lisa was careful not to hurt her injured arm.

Lisa walked out to the living room dreading another encounter with Jackson. "Still not going to tell me where were going?"

"What did I just tell you, Leese?" Jackson asked irritably. Without speaking further he opened the front door and grabbed Lisa's arm to pull her towards the car.

He went around to the passenger side and opened the back door for Lisa to put Alexis in the car. Lisa stood outside the car unmoving.

"Problem?" Jackson asked sarcastically

"Toddlers generally sit in car seats and your car seems to be lacking one."

"Put her in the car Leese." Jackson said furiously when Lisa made no attempt to put Alexis in the back seat. "In the car now." Jackson repeated quietly, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention.

Lisa set Alexis down in the back seat and made sure she was buckled in securely. Jackson grabbed Lisa's arm pulling her out of the backseat as she tried to climb in next to her daughter. "You're sitting up front with me where I can keep an eye on you"

Lisa wrenched her arm away from Jackson and walked on her own to the front seat, sitting down.

Jackson quickly pulled out of the driveway and headed to the freeway in utter silence.

"You're not going to get away with this, Jack. Somebody will find us." Lisa said confidently staring out the window.

Jackson grabbed Lisa arm and yanked her towards him. "You're better off getting that idea out of your head. You're mine." he said forcefully before letting go her arm and turning his full attention back to the road.

She turned her attention back to the scenery outside and occasionally glanced back to check on her daughter. Alexis had been unusually quiet during the trip. Normally she grew bored quickly and often complained. Jackson had obviously frightened her into silence.

Lisa desperately tried to figure out a plan to get away from Jackson. Her biggest worry was making sure Alexis wouldn't get more injured in the process. After weighing her options she decided to act while Jackson was focused on driving. She lunged forwards and pulling the steering wheel towards her she attempted to maneuver the car off the road hoping to cause the vehicle to crash.

Jackson was too quick for Lisa though and he quickly jerked the steering wheel back towards him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing Leese?" he yelled angrily smacking Lisa across the face. She fell backwards and her head hit the window. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

Lisa rubbed her head gingerly feeling the agony of a headache starting to form. "No I wasn't trying to get us killed." She replied sarcastically "And you really should watch your language since Alexis is in the backseat" she snapped.

Jackson pulled the car over to the shoulder and parked.

"Why exactly are we stopping?" Lisa asked curiously

Jackson retrieved the same pair of handcuffs that he had used earlier. He then grabbed both of Lisa wrists securing the metal around one wrist and pulling the other side through the door handle and securing it around her other wrist. "Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." he replied smugly, pocketing the key.

Lisa didn't resist Jackson's efforts this time fearful of his reaction if he lost his temper. Frantically, she racked her mind for a new plan of escape as Jackson continued to drive steadily towards their final destination.

* * *

**The next chapter may be a little delayed. We're understaffed at the daycareI work at so it pretty much is taking over my life. School starts again in like two weeks so I'm going to be busy with that once it starts. Remember to review and tell me what you think. **


	26. Tear You Apart

Got a big plan, this mindset maybe its right

At the right place and right time, maybe tonight

And the whisper or handshake sending a sign

Wanna make out and kiss hard, wait never mind

Late night, in passing, mentioned it flip to her

Best friend, it's no thing, maybe it slipped

But the slip turns to terror and the crush to like

When she walked in he froze up, leaves it to fright

It's cute in a way, till you cannot speak

And you leave to have a cigarette, knees get weak

An escape is just a nod and a casual wave

Obsessed about it, heavy for the next two days

It's only just a crush, it'll go away

It's just like all the others it'll go away

Or maybe this is danger and you just don't know

You pray it all away but it continues to grow

I want to hold you close

Skin pressed against me tight

Lie still, and close your eyes girl

So lovely, it feels so right

I want to hold you close

Soft breasts, beating heart

As I whisper in your ear

I want to fucking **tear you apart**

Then he walked up and told her, thinking maybe it'd passed

And they talked and looked away a lot, doing the dance

Her hand brushed up against his, she left it there

Told him how she felt and then they locked in a stare

They took a step back, thought about it, what should they do

Cause there's always repercussions when you're dating in school

But their lips met, and reservations started to pass

Whether this was just an evening or a thing that would last

Either way he wanted her and this was bad

He wanted to do things to her it was making him crazy

Now a little crush turned into a like

And now he wants to grab her by the hair and tell her

I want to hold you close

Skin pressed against me tight

Lie still, and close your eyes girl

So lovely, it feels so right

I want to hold you close

Soft breasts, beating heart

As I whisper in your ear

I want to fucking **tear you apart**

I want to hold you close

Soft breasts, beating heart

As I whisper in your ear

I want to fucking **tear you apart**

I want to hold you close

Soft breasts, beating heart

As I whisper in your ear

I want to fucking **tear you apart**

**x She Wants Revenge x **

**_Tear you Apart_**

Lisa lost track of how long they had been driving struggling to find a reason for Jackson to pull over so she could escape. Lisa glanced over at Jackson.

"You're starting to look tired. Maybe we should stop."

"You would like that, wouldn't you?" Jackson asked. "Really think you can outrun me, Leese? Is that it?"

"No" Lisa lied "I just thought you looked tired and I'd rather you not drive off the side of the road and get into a car wreck. I have Alexis to worry about too."

Jackson observed her momentarily and pulled off at the upcoming exit. "Fine, we'll stop but no games, Leese."

Lisa smiled in response to last comment "Whatever you say."

Jackson pulled into the parking lot of a mediocre hotel. He turned the engine off and seized Lisa's arm, turning her to face him. "Nothing stupid, Leese or Alexis will have more than a broken arm to worry about."

"Good." Jackson got out of the car and looked at the two of them wearily. "I'm going to get us a room. Don't go anywhere, Lisa."

Lisa clenched her teeth in anger glaring at him rebelliously. Futilely, she struggled against the metal cuff still connected to the car door.

Jackson returned quickly and walked around to the passenger side to unlock Lisa from the metal restraints. . He grabbed her by the wrists, yanking her out of the car causing Lisa to stumble. He then proceeded to pick Alexis up from the backseat and thought briefly about handing her to her mother but then decided against it not wanting to give Lisa the inclination to run off.

Alexis didn't make any attempt to break free well aware of his anger.

Once they were inside the hotel room that thankfully had two beds, Lisa announced she needed to take Alexis to the bathroom.

"I'll take her." Jackson insisted, grasping Alexis' hand.

"Right, that won't be awkward for her at all" Lisa retorted.

"It's either that or she can't go."

"You'd rather she have an accident on the carpet. I wonder how much the hotel would charge you to clean that."

"Fine, but don't be long or I'll be in to check on you."

"Whatever" Lisa picked up her daughter and closed the door behind them, turning on the water to hide their conversation.

Alexis started to explain that she didn't need to use the bathroom only to be interrupted as Lisa bent down and grasped Alexis loosely by the shoulders.

"I know, I know" Lisa said. "But mommy needed to talk to you by yourself. I need you to get away from Jackson. It's not safe for you. When we go back out, I want you to run to the office when I say so. Tell the person there that you need help, Okay?"

Lisa had Alexis repeat her directions back to her several times to make sure she remembered them. "It's going to be okay." Lisa said attempting to convince not just Alexis but herself as well. "You get home to daddy and I'll be there as soon as I can"

_Anywhere was safer than here for Alexis at this point. The office wasn't that far from here. _Lisa thought.

Once Alexis was no longer in danger she could focus on getting away from Jackson. He would no longer have any kind of leverage over her.

Lisa had just turned off the water and was getting ready to exit the bathroom when the door swung opened to reveal Jackson glaring at her suspiciously.

"What was taking so long?"

"Sorry" Lisa replied quietly "I couldn't get Alexis to stop playing in the water."

Jackson seemed to accept Lisa's explanation to her relief and stepped aside allowing them to enter the hotel room.

Jackson's arm coiled around Lisa's waist as he led her over towards the closest bed. Lisa was disgusted at his touch but decided it was better not to fight it. Alexis followed her mother over to the bed and sat down with her while Jackson retrieved some clothes out of his suitcase and set them on the bed.

"I'm going to take a shower and since I can't trust you to behave…" Jackson retrieved the cuffs he brought in from the car.

"No" Lisa pleaded. "I'll stay! Just don't use those again"

Jackson seized her wrist ignoring her plea and secured it to the headboard. He gathered up his clothes taking the key with him.

_Damn_ Lisa thought. _If only he left the key…_

Lisa sat quietly on the bed waiting for Jackson to reappear and Alexis sat still next to her while her mother absently minded played with her daughter's hair. Glancing at the doorway, Lisa's heart sank realizing that the dead bolt was too high for Alexis to reach on her own. Their eventual freedom would have to be obtained another way.

Jackson came back from his shower fully dressed in a fresh suit which Lisa found a little strange since it was late at night. _Maybe he's used to having to be ready to leave at any moment cause of his work._ He retrieved a pair of pink athletic pants and a white t-shirt for Lisa to change into to sleep in and set them down beside her. Lisa looked down at the clothes and then back at Jackson not sure of what to make of his offering.

"I figured they be more comfortable than the jeans and t-shirt you wearing now."

"Well it really doesn't help me, Jack when I can't even move."

"Fine, Leese. I'll unlock your cuffs but you will change out here." His lurid grin displayed his obvious pleasure at her dismay.

"There's no way I'm changing in front of you!" Lisa didn't even try to hide her anger at his appalling suggestion.

"Lisa, you have nothing that I haven't seen before." The comment sent her mind spiraling back to the night he assaulted her without regard to the fact of how in sating his whims, he nearly destroyed her.

Lisa would have slapped Jackson had he been closer. "I'd rather not discuss this with my daughter present."

"Fine with me. You can just sleep in the clothes you're wearing now." Jackson replied.

"Wait, Jackson…" Lisa needed him to unlock the handcuff if her plan was going to work. "I…you win. I'll change out here."

"Now that's a good girl" Jackson said, unlocking the restraint.

Once she felt the cold metal leave her wrist she brought her knee up into his stomach and then used her foot to push him backwards. Lisa realized his distraction would only be short lived so she had to get Alexis out quickly. Grabbing her small hand, Lisa ran over to the door unlocking the dead bolt that Alexis had been unable to reach on her own.

She almost had the door opened when she felt arms encircling her waist, pulling her backward. Lisa gasped as Jackson's grip tightened around her and threw her head back and stomped on his foot trying to get him to release his hold on her.

Her head collided with his and she managed to get to the door and open it just enough to push Alexis outside before Jackson yanked her away, throwing her onto the hard unforgiving floor.

* * *

Alexis stood outside momentarily, shocked by the events going on inside the room. Remembering her mother's instructions, she ran towards the office, her heart racing as she pushed open the door to the reception desk.

Alexis stood in the doorway of the office pondering how to get the attention of the young woman behind the counter who seemed otherwise pre-occupied by her work on the computer. However, the door chime alerted the receptionist to Alexis' presence.

Glancing up, the receptionist was surprised to only see a small child and was confused why she wasn't being accompanied by an adult.

"Excuse me," She stood up from her computer and circled around the desk to where the child was standing. "Where are your parents?"

"My daddy's at home but my mommy needs help" Alexis murmured, starring fixedly down at the ground.

The front desk clerk had never run into a situation like this before. _What should I do? _Kneeling down to the child's level, she put a consoling hand on Alexis' arm.

"Is she here at the hotel?"

"Yes, but I don't remember which room." Alexis sniffled, attempting to hold back her tears from being separated from her mother

"It'll be okay. Can you tell me your name at least?"

"Alexis" The child's reply was barely above a whisper.

"Okay I'm going to try and help your mom, all right?" Standing up, she went behind the desk and picked up the phone, dialing the number for the police deciding that they would know how to handle the situation better then she did.

* * *

"That wasn't smart Lisa. Really, what did you think you were going to accomplish?" His anger was evident. "She isn't going to remember where we are. The reservations aren't even under my name."

"At least she's away from you." Lisa's voice resonated with disgust as she attempted to push herself into a sitting position against the wall.

"That's okay. I still have what I want." Jackson smirked as he advanced towards her.

"Stay away from me!" Lisa stood up and made a dash for the door only to feel Jackson's fingers encircle her ankle, causing her to fall forward.

Jackson walked over to where Lisa fell, gripping her hair as he yanked her head up. "Ready to give up, Leese?"

"Never" Lisa spat at him, shoving her elbow into his stomach as she lifted herself off the ground. He released her, doubling over from her attack as Lisa pried the clock free from the wall and threw it at Jackson, aiming for his head.

Jackson quickly side stepped the flying object, advancing towards Lisa managing to seize her wrist, pulling her close towards him. Lisa thrashed in his grasp desperately hoping to escape. Jackson merely tightened his hold on her. "You don't ever listen, do you Lisa?" Jackson released her wrist only to grip her shoulders as he brutally shoved her against the wall.

Lisa moaned from the pain of the impact, her head spinning as she frantically tried to focus.

"You'll pay for all that you've done to me and my daughter." Lisa said, standing up using the wall as a means of support.

"Is that a threat?" He folded his arms across his chest. "You're mine, Leese to do with as I choose."

"I will never belong to you, _Jack_" Lisa threw one of the glass cups off the counter at him which hit him on the forehead. Momentarily dazed, she ran past him for still unlocked door and pulled it open getting part way out before Jackson's hand encircled her wrist and forcefully yanked her back inside.

She started to scream only to have her cry cut off as Jackson firmly clamped his hand over her mouth, "You wouldn't want to disturb our neighbors, now would you?"

Lisa lashed out, propelling her knee directly into his crotch, forcing him to relinquish his grip on her. Scrambling upwards, she tripped over her own feet and stumbled trying to regain her balance. But then she noticed something tucked away under the bed. A handle to a weapon was sticking out of the suitcase Jackson had used earlier. Lisa wrapped her hand around it and pulled hard feeling Jackson getting closer and with one last tug she freed the item from the suitcase.

"Get up, Leese" Jackson's demanding voice echoed from behind her. When Lisa didn't move, he repeated himself again. "I said get up"

She got up slowly, her fingers clenched around the gun comforted by its mere presence as a shield between Jackson and herself.

* * *

The police arrived at the hotel upon being informed of the situation. However, if the little girl didn't recall the room number, they had no way of determining which room to search.

The police officer in charge introduced himself to Alexis and tried to console her telling her that everything was going to be all right.

After talking to the few guests who were in the lobby trying to ascertain more information about the current situation, they decided to take Alexis down to the police station. Then the police could find a guardian who could pick her up or at least provide more information. Alexis was hesitant to leave the hotel to get into a stranger's car after what had happened the last time she had mistakenly decided to trust someone unknown to her.

She finally agreed and once they arrived at the station the police officer realized that the little girl was actually listed as missing and immediately contacted her home.

Landon got to the police station as fast as possible considering the great distance they had already traveled.

He was so happy when he saw Alexis sitting in the police station. He ran over to her and hugged her making up for all the time she was gone.

"Daddy!" Alexis exclaimed, overjoyed to see him. "I missed you!"

"Oh, I missed you too sweetheart. I'm so glad that you're back but where's your mother?" he looking around the police station not aware that only Alexis had escaped.

"The girl's mother." the police officer confirmed, "We're unsure of her whereabouts right now but we're working on it."

"Well work faster!" Landon tried not to allow irritation to creep into his voice. He had been so overjoyed to see Alexis that he didn't even notice the ace bandage on her arm at first.

"Honey, what happened to your arm? Did you fall?" Landon held his breath, trying not to assume the worst.

"No, he did it."

"Who?" Landon coaxed.

"The bad man that still has Mommy. He hurt Mommy too" Alexis said sadly "He said it was Mommy's fault that he hurt me because she wasn't listening to him."

Landon could feel his heart breaking in two, and he knew had to find Lisa right away before anything else happened.

"I did try really hard to behave like mommy said." She looked pleadingly at her father.

"I'm sure you did a wonderful job." He embraced her, attempting to hide the fear that gripped his heart.

* * *

Lisa made sure to hide the gun behind her back while she lifted herself off the ground.

"You win, Jack. I'm tired of fighting you. I give up."

"I'm a little disappointed Leese. I never thought you would surrender so easily." Jackson advanced towards her.

"I guess you thought wrong." Lisa murmured.

"That's a good girl. Now that you finally decided to cooperate, we can start to have some fun." Jackson smiled his intent evident.

"Fun for whom?" Before she realized it, Lisa began backing up.

Jackson was continuing to close the distance between the two of them.

"Stop!" Lisa's scream was easily dismissed by Jackson as he continued to approach her, thrilled at the opportunity to have her all to himself.

"I said stop." Lisa warned him, raising the gun from behind her back.

"Oh, so you're going to shoot me?" Jackson taunted Lisa. "You don't have the guts to kill me."

"Care to find out?" Lisa asked, cocking the gun "Then by all means, keep walking."

"You're bluffing." Jackson proceeded towards her, undeterred by the presence of the weapon.

Lisa squeezed the trigger and was startled by the recoil uncertain whether she hit him because his approach was unhindered by the blast of the gun.

"You stupid bitch" Jackson clutched his side. He lunged towards her trying to wrench the weapon from her hands. Lisa brought her foot up to his already injured stomach knocking him backwards onto to the floor. "You're going to pay for that" He snapped, grabbing her leg causing her to fall as the gun skidded across the floor away from her grasp.

Lisa knew she needed to get the weapon back. Using her foot to connect with his head, she scrambled to her feet reaching for the gun. "And that's for hurting Alexis!" Lisa spat at him.

Keeping the gun aimed at Jackson, she used the phone to inform the front desk that the police needed to be sent to her room immediately. "You're not going to get away this time." Lisa smiled confidently. She was now back in control and it was finally over. "If you ever think about coming near me or my family again, I swear I'll kill you!"

"That sounds like a threat, Leese." Jackson sneered, pushing himself into a sitting position, doubting the veracity of her statement considering she previously didn't have the courage to pull the trigger.

"It's a promise, Jack!" Lisa met his gaze forcefully as she waited for the police to arrive knowing that Jackson couldn't escape and her nightmare would finally be over.

* * *

A/N Sorry for the long delay before updating. There will be one more chapter/epilogue type thing. I'm thinking about writing a sequel from when Alexis has gotten older. I was wondering if people would be interested in reading a sequel? Big thanks to emptyvoices for her help with correcting and revising this chapter. 


	27. Bend and Not Break

_I am fairly agile  
I can bend and not break  
Or I can break and take it with a smile  
And I am so resilient  
I recover quickly  
I'll convince you soon that I am fine _

Try to understand, there's an old mistake that fools will make  
And I'm the king of them, pushing everything that's good away, so  
Won't you hold me now (I will not bend, I will not break)  
Won't you hold me now (for you I rise, for you I fall)

Just hold me close to you, just hold me close to you  
Just hold me close to you, just hold me close to you, to you

Bend and Not Break

x Dashboard Confessional x

* * *

Lisa didn't have to wait long for help to arrive and she watched silently while the police helped Jackson to his feet. After Jackson's injury was taken care of by the paramedics, they didn't waste any time taking him into custody. 

All Lisa wanted to do now that she was free of Jackson was to return home. She knew that would be impossible though. The police were going to have a lot of questions they would want answered. She was sure they didn't retrieve much information out of her daughter.

In the confusion of everything she had forgotten to ask about Alexis. Frantically, she turned towards the nearest officer.

"My daughter, is she okay?"

"Your daughter's fine. She's waiting with your husband down at the station." The officer reassured.

Lisa breathed a small sigh of relief and turned her attention towards the police car as Jackson was being put into the backseat. He returned her gaze with an icy glare. Lisa immediately looked away.

"Are you …umm…" Lisa clenched her fists in a nervous gesture. "What if he comes after me again?"

"We're going to do everything we can to make sure you and your family remains safe."

"Yeah and what if that's not enough?" Lisa mumbled to herself. She wasn't naïve enough to believe Jackson would just stay in jail.

After the police had finished interviewing witnesses at the hotel, they headed back to the station with Lisa.

When they arrived at the police station, she was excited to see Landon sitting with Alexis in his lap and hoped that the interrogation wouldn't take long.

The officer motioned her to a nearby room and Lisa took a seat across from him.

"Your daughter didn't remember much so anything you could tell us would be helpful. The more we have against Mr. Rippner, the easier it will be for the prosecution to build a case against him to keep him behind bars."

Lisa hesitated, not knowing exactly where to start. Thankfully, the officer initiated the interview process.

"Do you know why he decided to abduct your daughter?" he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Because he knew I would do anything to get her back."

"So did this guy know you previously?" The officer asked obviously unaware of Lisa's past with Jackson and the dreaded red eye flight she shared with him.

"Yes, and this wasn't the first time he came after me."

"Would you mind elaborating on that?" The officer waited patiently as Lisa paused trying to summon the courage to relay the trauma of Jackson's assault on her.

"Any information that we can get on this guy would be most helpful." He reminded her.

Lisa didn't particularly care too but she knew if she could get over her embarrassment she could finally put a stop to Jackson's torment of her.

"Jackson is Alexis' biological father."

"So was this a custody issue?"

"No, He doesn't care about her. I told you he just wanted to find to get to me because he has this twisted obsession for me."

"But you obviously loved him at some point to have had a child with him." The officer remained oblivious to the implications behind how her daughter was conceived.

"No, I've never had any romantic feelings towards him. I got pregnant with Alexis after he forced himself on me."

"Miss if that's true, why didn't you ever report it to the police?"

"Because Jackson isn't a person you want to make angry. You wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. He's an expert at disappearing without a trace."

Lisa could tell the officer wasn't sure what to say in response. "Well if that's all I would like to go home with my family now." She stood up from her chair.

"Yes, thank you for your time. You're free to go. We'll be in touch if we need any further information."

Lisa walked out of the room eager to join Landon. Landon got up when he saw Lisa coming back into the hallway. "So are you finished here?" he asked, embracing her.

"Yes, it's finally over. Let's go home." she took his hand.

"I'm so glad your back" Landon glanced over at Lisa while they were walking. "I was so worried about the both of you."

"I'm glad to be back too" Lisa smiled. "I missed you so much the whole time."

When they reached their car and had put Alexis in her car seat, Landon paused outside the vehicle. "I know you're probably anxious to get home but we still need to get Alexis to a doctor to have her arm checked."

"You're right but it shouldn't take too long, I hope." Lisa collapsed into the passenger seat of the car.

"We'll have plenty of time to spend together afterwards. I'm going to do my best to make sure that creep never gets near you again." Landon said reassuringly to her.

"I just hope that Jackson stays in jail where he belongs."

The following week Landon had taken Lisa and Alexis out to dinner.

When they arrived back home Lisa detected movement out of the corner of her eye. Immediately turning, she hesitated seeing a subtle movement in the shadows.

"Leese, you okay?" Landon asked.

She berated herself silently for becoming so easily spooked and faced Landon with a smile. "Yes, of course. I'm fine."

Shaking her head, convincing herself of her own paranoia she headed to the front door with Landon following behind her, carrying Alexis in his arms.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling of someone watching her every movement when she finally entered the house.

* * *

A/N:Thanks to emptyvoices for her help with editing this chapter. Since people seem interested in a sequel and I enjoyed writing this story that should be up as soon as I come up some ideas. 


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